Jesus and the Samaritan woman. Eglise Saint-Sulpice de Fougères (detail) 1919

Ludovic Alleaume created this stained glass, a detail from Jesus and the Samaritan woman in the Eglise Saint-Sulpice de Fougères, using glass and paint. The way light filters through the glass, it’s like the image is breathing. Look at how the colors aren’t blended so much as pieced together. It reminds me of how we construct meaning, bit by bit, from fragments of experience. The red cross, for example, isn’t just a solid block. You can see how the red is applied, revealing these almost wood-like striations, like veins running through the figure. That makes me think about how something so seemingly fixed is always in process, always being made and remade. And how that one red mark reverberates with all other areas in the piece, creating the illusion of depth, pulling us into the scene, but also emphasizing the surface and material quality. The tradition of stained glass feels like an ongoing conversation with artists like, say, Matisse, who used light and color in such radical, emotive ways. Each artist adding their voice to this chorus, finding new ways to illuminate the world around us, with all its beauty and brokenness.