My walk across the fields to work every day is a time for reflection. I wish I had reflected a little earlier on what I know to be true: every act of creativity, whether writing a novel, painting a picture, cooking a meal, or, in this case, painting a trompe l'oeil Aubusson, is a form of partership between the THING itself- the novel, the painting, the meal even and the artist, writer or cook. We, as the artist/writer/cook have to understand what the THING wants to do. The novel which is not even created is sitting there waiting to be discovered. The novelist simply helps it unravel. When I was a fashion designer I was constantly struck by how the fabric wanted to do things. All I needed to do was to help it along- that was my function. (Perhaps it is so with life even, in the biggest picture: it is lying there, waiting and wanting to do things, and all we are supposed to do is to understand what it is it wants!)
Now there is this trompe l'oeil Aubusson I am supposed to create. It is waiting for me- how could I not have seen that? I have been very arrogant, thinking it was nothing, and that I can do anything without hardly thinking about it! Well I am very wrong, and I am possibly about to pay dearly for my arrogance.