While wrapping I kept thinking about what I had accomplished in a year and what is still on the list of things I want to do. This morning I drifted through my 2024 pictures and compiled this short summary. I do this to remind myself about the directions I want to pursue further and the directions that didn’t work out as I had expected. I’m getting to the point that if I don’t make a note to remind myself it just doesn’t get done.
Top row, left to right: Redbud, detail; drawings at Hambidge, Everything Seemed Fine until the Earth Pushed Back detail
Middle Row: Driveway cracks, Dynamic Symmetry study, drawing with thorns
Bottom: Texture exploration, Brood detail, Nonsense detail
Nonsense, detail
First up. I spent two weeks at the Hambidge Center for Creative Arts & Sciences in northern Georgia in a residency. While there I spent a lot of time hiking. I experimented with folded papers, studied Dynamic Symmetry and did a lot of drawing. My palette reflected the colors outside my windows. I need to go back to that geometry this year. It was intriguing to see how a simple rectangle could change the way a composition moved.
When I returned I played with the black and white fabric I designed and had printed at Spoonflower in a piece I call Nonsense. Then I finished Brood — two quilts merged into one. See this post to follow my process.
Brood, 65” x 65”, merged quilts, 2024, Paula Kovarik
Teaching Inspirations
I spent a lot of time teaching in 2024 • The Stitching’ Post in Sisters, Oregon • Shakerag Workshops in Sewanee, TN, • Women Who Run With Scissors in Greenbay, WI • Quilting by the Lake in Geneva, NY • Madeline Island School of the Arts in LaPointe, WI • The Front Range Guild in Denver, CO and • Design Outside the Lines in Taos, NM. Not only were these groups talented they were also fearless. We had the best of times. I am inspired each time I have the opportunity to participate as an instructor and wish I had more time to just be a student too.
I HIGHLY RECOMMEND taking workshops or attending residencies when you can. I seek spaces and people who inspire me. I look for opportunities to try something new and be in a space that is not my own nest. I like to be a little uncomfortable to change my perspective.
The beach was two blocks from my studio, The statues were at a shrine devoted to the Sleeping Buddha, my studio was a lovely open space just across from my living quarters.
A trip of a lifetime
In October and November I spent six weeks in the Itoshima Prefecture of Japan. The first four weeks were at a Studio:Kura residency. I lived in community with four other artists, had a studio to myself, a bedroom and a shared kitchen. The spaces were a bit raw but PERFECT for my needs. We were surrounded by rice and vegetable farms, mountains, and the sea was a two block walk from the studio. A 15 minute walk brought me to the local train station that would get me into the city. It was a spectacular experience. I’m still processing some of the things I learned. It was there that I started a drawing on a rice paper scroll. The scroll ended up being 18.5 feet long. It’s a stream-of-consciousness piece that is part journal, part imagination and part pattern. I’m not sure how I will ever be able to display it but at this point I like it for itself. A personal memory of a journey.
This year most of my time in the studio has been experimental. I’m attracted to layering and adding texture and detail. More is in fact more for me (though that Japanese aesthetic of simplicity is also calling me). I am drawing more, stitching less. Thinking about installations, moving to messier work. Edgy, layered, inventive. I still want to work in 3D but am running out of room in my studio.
I spent the whole year not doing work inspired by the news or politics. The subjects were just too painful.
Top row: Texture study, Playing with pink, texture study close up
Middle row: Scrap garlands, Grandson Fitz, texture study close up
Bottom row: Drawings from Japan, wrapped thorns, Japan scroll
The treasure at the end of this rainbow of a year is my darling, luscious grandson Fitz, born on December 21 weighing 7lbs, 7 oz. I love you so much my sweet angel.
Happy new year everyone. I yearn for peace.