Très Parisien, 1925, No. 6, Pl. 1: Création PHILIPPE et GASTON. Création ANNA. 1925

This fashion plate, Très Parisien, was made in 1925 by G-P. Joumard and you can find it at the Rijksmuseum. It's got these two figures, all line and flat color, so it's more like an outline of a feeling than a realistic image. It reminds me that art making is often about mapping out ideas rather than capturing reality. I’m really drawn to the way the colors are laid down so smoothly, almost like they're floating on the surface. There's a lack of texture that pulls you into this flattened world. Look at the pink dress on the left, how the simple stripes suggest depth without actually creating it. It's like Joumard is playing with our expectations, reminding us that what we see is always a kind of illusion. Thinking about other artists who played with similar ideas, I'm reminded of David Hockney. Like Hockney, Joumard invites us to revel in the beauty of artifice. And that's something I try to keep in mind in my own work too: that art can be a space of freedom, where we get to invent our own versions of the world.