Two sides, same person. I often work on more than one piece at a time. This month I have been working on two pieces. One is contained and precisely pieced, the other looks like Dr. Frankenstein took out his needle during a side show.
She didn’t have the password started as an abstract composition of black and white fabrics laying about the studio. I always have black and white “units” to play with. They are off-cuts of other work or random shapes put together when I can’t figure out what I want to work on. In fact, I have a whole drawer full of them that I vaguely think about putting together in one huge piece but I never get around to actually doing it. So a piece like this takes the place of that grand plan.
Here’s a detail of the piecing and stitching. Each unit of black and white pieced fabrics is put together to form a landscape that can tell a story. This story has to do with feeling like you aren’t part of the cool kids. Like you don’t know the secret word and everyone else does.
Working on this piece is analytical, planned, light-hearted and precise. I wait for the work to tell me what it needs. It’s a quiet dialog that builds with each detail.
She didn’t have the password - detail, 2019, Paula Kovarik
The original title for this piece was “It looked like fun in there but she didn’t have the password.” The piece measures about 35” x 29”
Dark Heart is an assemblage of cut up quilts. Using traditional quilt patterns, in this case an eight-pointed star, I cut up quilts that are already stitched and reassemble them with Frankenstein-like sutures. I wanted to make fractured crowns, but then it morphed into this bird-like creature overseeing chaos.
Here are some detail shots of the stitching.
Dark Heart, work in progress, detail, Paula Kovarik
Dark Heart, work in progress, detail, Paula Kovarik
Dark Heart, work in progress, detail, Paula Kovarik
Working on this piece is emotional, unplanned, dark and messy. I wait for the work to tell me what it needs. it’s a greedy piece clamoring for more each time I look at it.
Dark Heart, work in progress. Approximately 54” x 46”, Paula Kovarik
So, yes, sometimes I feel like a nut and sometimes I don’t. Two sides, same person.