Flights of Inspiration

Hurrying through the airport on my way to catch a plane, the crowds parted in front of me and my way was impeded by a plexiglass case of artifacts. I stopped dead in my tracks: they were an arresting sight.

There was a raffia mat, with a large pottery vase and a smaller pottery bowl, all in greys, blacks, tans, and ochre, the natural colors of the materials. The mat was diagonal in the case, and it's graphic image captured my attention.

It was a woven raffia pile mat from Africa. Which country? Which century? Contemporary or antique? The details from the small card in the case escape me now. None of that really matters: I was captivated by the imagery. The cultural information is secondary here to the graphic inspiration.

I did a quick sketch from memory once I was seated in the gate area.



Later, I did another with color added, my own ideas of color, not the colors of the original piece.



The lines in the mat were delightfully askew, they weren't neat and tidy. It was as if they were done at will, not from any neat mathematical calculation. There is much in weaving that is orderly, but I am most captivated by weavings that demonstrate a bit of the human touch: the uneven, the off-kilter, the out-of-square, the meandering line.

Here is the beginning of the first interpretation:



Wool pile bagface, about 8" wide (and getting wider, speaking of human frailty!).

Inspiration is everywhere, sometimes in the least likely places. While I *can* find it right outside my door, I also find it very often when I am out and about, in public, when I go into *watcher* mode. I find my mind is let to wander when I am out of my comfort zone of home and studio. And for some reason, inspiration is often not where I go looking for it: it comes upon me unawares.