Vija Celmins: I found this little piece of wood out on the dunes in the middle of Death Valley in California, which had little cracks on it and it was so dry. And I put it in my pocket. Later, when I came back to New York, I took it out and it had this very wonderful quality of fineness—the cracks were so tiny. And I thought that I might try to make a painting that had that surface on it. You know, sometimes you have like moments when everything comes together. This is one of those moments. It's like a little inspirational moment. And then, what you have to do is you have to prolong that moment all of that time that it takes to make the painting.

It’s a painting you really have to relate to walking toward it. Getting very, very close, you see how very handmade it is. Then stepping back a little bit it, it just crystallizes together. And then, the part that's the desert is just like a ghost that hovers behind it. But the real experience is right there in the gallery between the viewer and the painting.