Gezicht op de Hervormde Kerk te Vlissingen na de brand in 1911 1911

This photograph shows the Reformed Church in Vlissingen after a fire in 1911. I imagine the photographer standing here, trying to capture the scene. You can feel the heat, or maybe the lingering smoke. I look at this scene of destruction and wonder how you make something out of the ruins of something else. Isn’t that what painting is anyway? Taking something – a feeling, an idea, an image – and remaking it with color and form. I like the way the photographer has framed the shot. The delicate branches, the textures of the ruined stone and brick. The image has a sort of melancholic beauty. It is a reminder that art, like life, is constantly evolving. The only constant is change itself. Like the phoenix from the ashes, it is reborn. That's what making art is all about.