stasis

I’m interested in how nature layers and transforms materials through growth, rot, erosion and rebirth.

And also in how we humans transform the same spaces.

Having just returned from a two week trip to the deserts of Arizona I am filled with images and thoughts. I participated in a wonderful show at the 45th annual Yuma Art Symposium where I met some inspiring artists and teachers. I traveled through deserts and into mountains and canyon lands where I found extraordinary nature-made patterns and shapes. I studied native pottery, browsed through museums and took long hikes. I met up with a family of javelinas during a hike, watched crows chatter at hikers and studied the layers and layers of rock forms at the Grand Canyon—holding on for dear life for fear of being whisked into the canyon. (It is clear that my fear of edges is getting worse as I get wiser.)

And, now, I am a little frozen on next steps. How to take all of that in and then apply it to my own work? Should I just go back to what I was working on before I left?

For some reason I am not ready to stitch. And that is really odd for me. I am ALWAYS ready to stitch. So I took out my drawing tools and did some stream-of-consciousness drawings instead. I might want to stitch something that looks like these.

And, I am reading a lot. The Plague of Doves by Louise Erdrich, The Wager by David Grann, North Woods by Daniel Mason, Never Home Alone by Rob Dunn. I recommend them all. These stories take me to other places.

So, for now, I am working on the engineering part of my work. Knotting loose threads, adding edge bindings and hanging sleeves…all those details that bore me. I usually hate doing that part of my art. For now it gives me more time to think about what’s next.

Influences

It’s impossible to process

I hesitate to post these thoughts. Watching the horror on the news is too big, too evil, too dark. I feel the weight of Ukraine. I feel the weight of our dysfunctional political system and now…Israel and Palestine.

It’s dark. Overwhelming. I can fall into despair with each news segment.

While working on this piece for the past three weeks I started with the idea of those invisible things that happen in biological systems. Blood cells, bacteria, infection, growth, coded genomes, and bodily structures. And also the way soil has populations of organic matter full of life and motion. I wanted the detail and texture to represent the complicated environments within and without.

But then the news got more dire. A congress that can’t get their act together. People banning books. War in Ukraine continuing and winter coming. And then Israel and Palestine.

The piece got darker. and darker.

Incursion, 30” x 46”, canvas, ink, batting. Paula Kovarik

Breathe, breathe.

Start small

I have big ideas but small energy. The boot around my foot is like a concrete buoy. I float in and out of possibilities but feel like I can only bob in place. I can’t really stand up for long so cutting and ironing are on hold.

So I started small—A little hand stitching, a little scribbling, a little free motion stitching and I feel like I might be able to think about the big things again. One broken foot does not equal one broken brain.

Flight path is in response to the yellow swallowtail butterflies flitting through the Abelia bush next to the back porch. They are joyous in their feeding frenzy.

I’ll be able to make big things in the future. For now, small is the challenge.

Don't fall

Best laid plans right? I spent weeks thinking about what to bring to my residency at Hambidge, drove with a song in my heart to the lovely state of Georgia, spent a night with friends (who were so very gracious and delightful) and then break my foot.

In three places. No denying it. It was a stupid fall down three little bitty steps. I just wasn’t paying attention. So I drove home (without a bathroom break!) and have set up my alternative reality. I cancelled the residency, cancelled a workshop in Portland, cancelled a vacation with friends on the Pacific coast, and cancelled another workshop in Sisters, Oregon. I spent the day cancelling flights, rental cars and hotel stays. And now the slate is clean.

This is the view from our screened porch. The weather is perfect, the scene inspiring, there are no deadlines. All I have to do is figure out how to slow down. Stop. Rest.

Time is short. It’s not in my nature to fritter away each precious minute with rest, or contemplation. I’m not a napper. I am an active sort. Busy is better, the list is long, the tasks rewarding. I like to see results, progress and growth. So now I need to redefine what that is. How does this inactivity shore up an overloaded mindset? What is it I am trying to accomplish with my art? What needs to be sorted out? Simplified? Stopped?

AHA! Moments and Layered Chaos, Paula Kovarik

Two of my pieces (Aha! Moments and Layered Chaos) become one through disruption. I did this mockup (using Photoshop) prior to leaving for my residency.

Was this idea a precursor of what actually happened a week later? Perhaps. I am paying attention to the invisibles in life. The uncanny. Maybe I’ll get my rotary cutter out to put this piece together.

Don’t fall. There are other things that are much more exciting.

How do you handle disruption?

The Public Eye

I believe that art isn’t done until someone besides the artist has seen it. I am also at a point in my career that I want the pieces I make to leave my studio. I want them to travel. I want them to go away, clear the decks, and move on. So I spend some time each week seeking ways to get my work into the public eye. I like to start a conversation with my work. I’m interested in how we communicate with each other.

With that goal in mind, the art group I am part of (Six Points) made a proposal to a local university gallery called 2 sides/6 points. Here’s the original proposal we made to the gallery.

2sides/6 points

In 2 sides/6 points we ask ourselves these questions: Can art have a do over? How does an immersive conversation with an artist inspire new art? Can one artist reinvent the work of another? Can imitation or intention carry an artist to a new place?

We six artists have met regularly for over seven years. As a group, our aim is to support, nourish and react to each other’s work with critical eyes born from long discussions. We know and celebrate each other. We listen and consider. It’s a deep dialog based on the belief that our aim is to assist and our process is to be honored.

And now our task is to dive deeper. With this show, we bring the time-honored practice of one artist being inspired by another to create new work. Each of the six will choose a work by one of the others and reflect, re-imagine and create a work inspired by that piece. After a one-on-one artist-to-artist conversation the original piece will act as a muse to something new from a different point of view, medium, or palette. This show will include the original artwork, the inspired creation, and a sampling of each artist’s body of work.

The tall piece in the middle of this picture features the work I created after engaging in this challenge.

I was paired with Mary Jo Karimnia in this challenge. She has a multi-media practice that includes using beads, flocking, paint and paper. One of her series is devoted to eyes. When we met we talked about evil eyes, inner eyes, protective eyes, seeing eyes, third eyes and the many ways that eyes are referred to in art. Her eyes are painted on plates, cut out of wood, mounted on baskets and gathered in installations.

Mary Jo Karimnia does a series of works focused on eyes.

Choosing a strong palette with lots of pattern was a new challenge for me. I usually work with less color.

Recently I watched a documentary about refugees and asylum seekers traversing the jungles of Panama to get to safety. Their journey is horrendous, murderous and rife with corruption. Many die. It occurred to me that the whole world should witness this disaster. The whole world needs to figure out how this ends. And then I realized that the whole world is watching this disaster, all across the globe people are hungry, hopeless and in danger. So I decided to use that idea in my piece called The Whole World’s Watching using eyes as a focal point.

The Whole World’s Watching, detail, Paula Kovarik

Every so often we get a news flash of more people dying in their attempts to get to safety.

The Whole World’s Watching, Paula Kovarik, 50.5” x 16”

The 2 sides/6 points show will debut in September at the UT-Martin campus of the University of Tennessee. If you are in the area please stop by and let us know what you think about the show. Let’s continue this conversation.