seeing differently

Ten days from now I will be making a presentation at The Common Thread Symposium hosted by the North Carolina State University College of Design’s Department of Art+Design (find out more here). Preparing a lecture about my artwork is always a challenge. My thoughts evolve. I see pieces in new ways, I discard others. More and more I see the collection as a series of experiments with highlights in insight.

Many people work in series. I work like a taste tester. The horizon contains a spectrum of possibilities. Those little flickering lights of ideas challenge me to focus the lens.

This may be a handicap. I'm not sure. I do know that it follows my trajectory as a designer.

Inspiration can be rocky -- a bone rattling bedevilment. Or, it can rocket me onward to new planets. It's a heady mix. Each project has a list of ingredients, insights and goals. Each requires weeding out the extraneous, simplifying the knotty and, sometimes, adding depth where no bottom can be seen.

Now, let me clean my glasses and get on with it.

exuberant distractions

How can I resist these colors? Why am I sitting in front of computer instead of grazing idly through the parkscapes gathering up the color? Fall beckons. Make haste to the outdoors.

Hardy Ageratum and Henry's Garnet Sweetspire.

Hardy Ageratum and Henry's Garnet Sweetspire.

I will continue the hand stitching on this piece (The grass was greener) outside, in the lingering spectacle.

The grass was greener, detail, Paula Kovarik, 2015

A potential stitch pattern? Hyacinth Bean vine takes over the back deck.

Inner path goes public

The Common Thread Symposium hosted by the North Carolina State University College of Design’s Department of Art+Design is on November 6-7, 2015 (find out more here). I am one of the featured artists.

Preparing a workshop focused on linework is daunting. It will be the first time I teach something about how I approach line and design. I have to look within to create an outward path. The hardest part of doing this is figuring out how to narrow it all down to a four-hour exercise. It's an opportunity that I feel ready for despite the mountains of ideas I need to edit.

If you are near Raleigh, North Carolina on November 6-7 take some time to participate in this event. I'd love to meet you and share some thoughts. Check out these speakers and workshops:

Lecturers

Dr. Susan Kay-Williams, Chief Executive Office of the Royal School of Needlework
Ilze Aviks, Contemporary Embroidery Artist
Precious Lovell, Contemporary Fiber Artist and Independent Researcher
Andrea Donnelly, Conceptual Weaver

Workshop Leaders

Ilze Aviks, Contemporary Embroidery Artist
Precious Lovell, Contemporary Fiber Artist and Independent Researcher
Gabrielle Duggan, Contemporary Fiber Artist and Educator
Mary Kircher, Contemporary Weaver
Kelly Kye, Contemporary Quilter
Mackenzie Bullard, Natural Dye Researcher

I had a glass of wine with my oatmeal last night

Comfort food and catnip. That's what it has come down to. My head is so fractured with focuses the threads careen forward with untrammeled exuberance. I have eight serious pieces in process and I flit from one to another like a ping pong ball on crack.

Must focus. Must breathe.

I think it was the time away from the studio that did it. Images flicker in my short term memory with such a radiance of immediacy that I am compelled to follow their paths.

Pollinators, detail, Paula Kovarik

Bifurcation. It's a word that floated to the top of my mind the other day. A word that ended up being my vocabulary word-for-the-day. Why? I have no clue. But bifurcate it did. It means "to fork or divide into two branches." So when I look it up on the web the standard rabbit holes show up on Google where scientists and mathematicians start explaining bifurcation theory. The diagrams look suspiciously like my brain on dual focus mode. And I start to study bifurcation diagrams thinking that maybe the answer lies in a mathematical model. STOP.

Lately my bifurcation looks like this:

Can too many ideas lead to fuzzy thinking?


I did not win $200,000

ArtPrize Seven announced the top five 2-D entries by public vote today. I was not one of them. And, I have to say it was no surprise.  Even though, in my wildest dreams, I could think of ways to make that prize money work for me and my community, the field was broad and full of worthy pieces. 

I did learn a lot from this opportunity.

  • I am uncomfortable getting praise. It just plain makes me nervous. I don't want to appear egotistical but at the same time I don't want to seem like I don't trust myself and my work. I usually say thank you with a sincere look into the person's eyes and hope that the subject will change soon.
  • I do like it when people come to me with their ideas of what my work means to them. It's so much easier to respond to that. The dialog is ongoing in my head and any extra tidbits from others just makes my vision more whole. And isn't that the point? Isn't that the main reason I do this stuff? To elicit response, to open my thoughts to others, to bring my point of view to the public arena, to let the work be bare naked in the spotlight? I love it when it works.
  • I don't like competitions (and this also goes for openings), I met a number of artists who were avidly marketing their work. Others were very passive or invisible. Though I admire the self-confidence of some of the more glib artists I am of the second group. I am not a garrulous person. It is truly uncomfortable for me to be in a space where I need to "sell" my work to others. I have often thought that the perfect experience for me during an opening or within a competition would be through webcam.

My best wishes to these worthy artists. I wish them all the best in the coming week when Grand Rapids will name the winner. I have added the top five public picks below and a link to their work. Judge for yourself, and contact the artist to tell them what their works mean to you. I know they would appreciate it. Better yet, go to Grand Rapids and vote for them. Make their dreams a reality.

Top Five by public vote - Two-Dimensional

  • As Above at Grand Rapids Art Museum, by Judith Braun from New York, New York
  • Triple Play at Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum, by Anni Crouter from Flint, Michigan, winner of the 2nd Place $75,000 public vote award at ArtPrize 2013
  • michigan petoskey stone at DeVos Place Convention Center, by Randall Libby from Manistee, Michigan
  • Northwood Awakening at Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum, by Loveless PhotoFiber from Frankfort, Michigan, winner of the $200,000 ArtPrize 2013 Public Vote Grand Prize
  • In a Promised Land… at DeVos Place Convention Center, by Shawn Michael Warren from Harvey, Illinois