Maria read a piece about the ancient town of Herculaneum, and she said she had an itch to go to a museum and look at ancient art. Maria and I have been to 100 museums, I’ve never seen her show any interest in ancient art. But I know that it means for an artist to have an itch, so an hour or so later, we were at the Williams College Museum in Williamstown, Mass, where there is a floor stuffed with beautiful vases, drawings, jewelry and scrolls.

Maria studied every one closely, it is always fascinating to me to see how the mind of an artist works, she seemed to have a private conversation with every vase and coin. I imagine this will show up in her fiber works in one way or another, I’ve never seen her pay so much attention to every single object, we usually just breeze through museums, stopping her or three. It was a lovely break in the day, an interlude. I love the intense relationship she seemed to have with these beautiful old objects. I had never paid much attention to them either.