An image is forming.

From an eco print on cotton. Unrolling the bundle revealed these luscious livid lines. They’re imprints made by the red sari silk I wound round the bundle before steaming.

Veins, I thought, and that I could develop this print to further my Below the Line project.

Then, striata came to mind. I looked the word up.

The Free Dictionary:
striatum, striata — a mass of nervous tissue within the brain.

Wikipedia:
Functionally, the striatum helps coordinate body movements with motivation. Coordinating motivation and body movement can be as simple as controlling fine-motor functions, or as complex as inhibiting one’s behavior depending upon social interactions.

A French language botanical definition piqued my interest. It uses striata (stries) synonymously with veins (veines).

I bought some piping yesterday to make venous pathways in this print. Connecting roads between my physical and conceptual worlds? There’s the plant material from perambulations of my garden; and there’s (unexpectedly) my corpus striatum – that’s the bundle of nervous tissue in my brain that’s trying to coordinate my body movements with my motivation. I do hope this nervous mass is a labyrinth rather than a maze.

I think I need to pay my corpus striatum more attention, now that I am aware of its existence. My body movements rarely seem to follow my motivations.