Shaker Rug (Detail) c. 1936

Lucille Gilchrist made this small painting, "Shaker Rug (Detail)," and what grabs me is how she approached something so…textile-y, with paint. I can almost see her, squinting, trying to figure out how to get that woven texture, that tight, repetitive pattern, onto a flat surface. It’s like she’s translating a language. The original rug, made with thread, becomes these little dabs and dashes of paint. There's a real challenge in capturing the essence of something so tactile and functional with something as illusionistic as paint. And I wonder if Gilchrist felt that tension too, between the craft of rug-making and the art of painting. Maybe this painting is a bridge between those worlds, a way of thinking about how different kinds of making can speak to each other, how they are intertwined and feeding each other.