Palimpsest is one of my favorite words, probably because of those plump plosives, but mostly because the thing itself (a piece of parchment on which the original work -- usually an illuminated manuscript -- has been scraped off so that the surface might be used again) says so much about the impermanence of creation and the created thing: The impulse to keep going, to do it again, to make and do and create even in the face of limited resources and a shortage of school supplies.
It whispers of a Tibetan Mandala inside the world of Western art: Make this thing now, lay it down with intricacy and attention and beauty, and then sweep its component parts into the stream where they can be shared with the world. Because the world needs them.
And then make something new. Start again.
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