A few weeks ago, I went to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, where I saw an excellent show of Goya’s work.  However, the awe came as I went to the Contemporary Art collection.  In a large atrium/gallery I found this hanging from the ceiling (and my roommate from college, whom I was visiting, took a picture for me):

I thought it was pretty cool.  As you know, I love cells and curvilinear forms in nature, and this was speaking my visual vocabulary.  However, when I found out what it was made of, I fell in love.  Styrofoam cups (Untitled, 2003, approx. 16 feet x 16 feet).  So, I looked up the artist when I returned home, and there I discovered the work of Tara Donovan, an American artist that makes large installation pieces from everyday manufactured materials:  straight pins, straws, tar paper, film……  I had seen an example of her work a few years earlier at the ICA in Boston, a large cube comprised of straight pins, but this work really made me take notice.  It achieves such a presence, it transforms the material used to make it, it speaks my visual vocabulary, and it told me that I was not yet making the art that I want to make.  So, back to the drawing board.