Crocheted Lace c. 1936

Lena Nastasi made this drawing of crocheted lace, and I just love the idea of painting something so delicate with something so blunt. I imagine her really looking, trying to figure it out—that dance between the eye and the hand. The negative space is so heavy and blocky, while the lace is super intricate. It's like she's playing with opposites. Maybe she was thinking about how something beautiful can come from something plain. I look at the circular forms and I think of Eva Hesse and the way she used repetition. There’s something really meditative about that, right? You get into a rhythm, and then, suddenly, something new emerges. It's kind of like painting itself—you start with a mark, and then another, and another, and before you know it, you've got something that's bigger than the sum of its parts.