Guggenheim 612--Westlake, California c. 1956

Robert Frank captured this strip of negatives, Guggenheim 612--Westlake, California, in the middle of the last century. Looking at these frames, I can imagine Frank, out in the sun, moving between bleak architectural facades and long lonely roads. The images, set in a grid, almost give the feeling of flipping through channels on an old TV. It looks like he made his selections with a grease pencil. I remember that! It reminds me of sifting through a studio full of drawings. What to keep and what to let go. Every artist makes these choices. I think about other photographers like Garry Winogrand who took and took and took pictures. But here, Frank has made his cuts for us. These small, almost accidental, glimpses of roadside America. Maybe what he didn’t choose is just as good? Which got me thinking about what I don’t choose to paint! These are the conversations that artists have with each other, across time.