Why does inspiration have to strike so late at night? It's past 4 a.m. now and I forced myself to make sleepy time herbal tea. I was getting ready for bed and then just a little after midnight an idea struck that I can't stop thinking about it. A new piece is weighing heavily on my mind and I started sketching it out quickly. It makes me not want to go to my memoirs writing class on Tuesday, makes me want to skip going to physical therapy this week, makes me put down books that I've been reading, makes me put aside my comic for a while... These past few days I've already lost track of facebook feeds and twitter feeds and blog feeds, e-mails, and so forth because working on different kinds of things and trying to leave the house as much as possible... but now. I just want to lock myself in my room and not come out until it's finished. This is an unexpected piece. Probably the best kind. I've laid out the piece in my notebook, thumbnail sketches and all. I want to make a final draft before proceeding... I've even brought out all the possible art supplies and materials I will be using for this.

I keep writing notes.

It's going to be a mixed media piece. An artist book. A mediation on Simone Weil's conversion and George Herbert's poem "Love." It's about being captivated, allured, drawn in, compelled.... vs. resisting and holding back. It's about fear. It's about my own struggles with the faith. It's about surrendering, being vulnerable, being drawn down to the knees.
It's about perfect love casting out fear.

I want to work on it now except that it's too late and I don't want to be tired during the day. But this piece is calling out to me. If I were to work this late, I would have to already be on the homestretch... on to completion.

I am going to sleep now. When I wake up for the day, the first thing I'm going to do is find my copy of Coltrane's "A Love Supreme" to listen to while I work on this.