studies in direction

aging cracks, 2013, Paula Kovarik

I was working on a piece last night that I had always imagined in a horizontal format. In other words, I wanted the eye to read left to right across the surface in horizontal layers. But then I looked at the surface more obliquely (out of the corner of my eye and squinting) and I realized that doing that with the stitching added an element of calm, not dynamism, as I wanted.I may twist the piece 90 degrees to accomplish that and boy what a difference that makes!

So this morning I studied this photo from my walk yesterday to analyze how direction of line affects the interpretation of the elements. I twisted it around a bit to see what differences I could percieve. I think the image on the left looks hopeful and indicates growth (progressing left to right from dark to light) while the image on the right seems to portray deterioration and collapse.

Am I imagining this?

Here is another image of the same photo. This time I mirrored it (flipped it horizontally) So now what do I see? I see an effort of growth from chaos on the left. And on the right, growth that becomes complicated or corrupt. Is either side positive or completely negative? Not sure. It may be all in the eye of the beholder.

more delay

One of the delights of reorganizing my studio was rediscovering my rocks-with-holes collection. For as long as I can remember I have been a rock collector and one of my favorite varieties are those with holes. It just seems so amazing that something so hard can have naturally occuring holes. It's like a missing piece, or a peephole into the unknown, just a little weakness.

I spent the last part of Sunday afternoon tying some of them to a piece of grape vine from the garden and hanging it in the studio window. Now they twirl and dance too. Proving that even the hardest of us can learn to frolic.

I'm not fooling myself. This little project was just one more way to avoid the big one on the design wall. I am at a frozen spot with it. Looking for a little sunshine before stitching.

re-org

I spent the entire weekend completely reorganizing my studio. What a mess. Each box exploded with choices: to keep or not? to sort or not? to hide forever or not? The good thing about reorganizing is that long lost (and previously organized) items float up to the top again. I found many little experiments that I need to try again, pieces that were shoved into anonymity by frustration, and scraps. Lots of scraps. These selvedges were particularly intriguing to me. Why did I save them? What should I do with them? For now they are up on the design wall along with a set of eyes that I stitched for my long delayed eyeball quilt. I'll show those in another post. For now I want to rush right in to do some work on these newly neatened scraps.

a sticky problem

I found this chestnut on a walk the other day. The texture caught my eye while walking and then upon examination the depth of it inspired me to think about our natural defenses — protecting ourselves, our environment and our sanity. Sometimes I wish I could don a coat of thorns and recede into the wild. Other times I want to shed the thorns and open up to the light. This little natural wonder speaks to both those urges.

Now if I could just remember where that tree was I could go collect a few more of these wonderful nuts and roast a little happiness into this cold cold day.

chestnut

tis the season

It has been difficult to get into the spirit of Christmas this year since the temp has been hovering around 70 degrees and every thing seems to be crowding into too few days. As I was taking a walk the other day while mentally clicking off all the things I needed to do before the holiday I saw this lovely tree with it's natural christmas ornaments on it. This is the tree I want in my living room. very graphic, very simple...less is more.