13. Textile Art

This is the front of the lace panel. One day when my mother was working on it, I called and asked her how it was going. She was enthused and said "I've decided to view this panel as textile art! Wait till you see it."

I ashamed to admit that the phrase textile art made me very nervous. Mostly, it made me think of the art projects mom did when I was in middle school which consisted of giant canvasses covered with bright color blocks and geometric orange fish. When I saw the finished lace, I was sorry I'd ever doubted mom's artistic sense, though if you'd seen the orange geometric fish, you'd understand why I worried. Mom's art projects are always cool, but rarely subtle. And they often feature orange fish.

The picture here does not adequately capture the beauty of the lace. I spent at least 15 minutes looking at the lace and sighing. I still sigh when I see it. It is beautiful. It is art, and my mom is an artist, orange geometric fish and all.