getting ready to work

I've just returned from Peggy Mersereau's studio, and I'm overwhelmed. Peggy and I are going to show together at her place on the Ganaraska Studio Tour in April. She is a fabric artist, whereas I just use fabric texturally in my painting. After having seen Peggy's "mermaid" necklaces and exquisite invisible thread work, I am too excited to work! I need to get some distance to begin the process of decision-making that embarking anew calls for.

Talking about process, I realize the challenge of letting notions ripen into a workable focus. It's a bit like lingering overlong in that maddening sensation of "I know the word but I can't think of it". One goes on talking anyway, knowing that the fugitive word is exactly the thing needed to make everything come into focus.

I don't "know the word" for what I am striving at recently in my work, but the intimacy of fabric, its fascinating history and the metaphoric quality of warp and weft are all pushing me to speak it.