On saying yes

I say yes to a lot of opportunities and to myself and to my family and to my friends. Trouble with that is I end up with too much on my plate. When I should be snacking I am gorging. When I should be contemplative I am mumbling deadlines and bifurcating my brain. And yet, as the scorpion said to the frog, it’s just my nature. If I had an empty plate I would scrounge around for something, anything, everything to do.

Last week started off with this little project. I was both channeling Leo Ray and Jackson Pollock. It started with a piece of canvas on which I dribbled, sprayed and splotched some fabric paint. The idea was I would discover things within the painting that would inspire me to stitch. I would end up with a continuous series of pieces that would fit together like Leo Ray’s continuous paintings.

I cut the canvas into five square pieces and started to add stitching where they needed stitching. I have been drawing like this for awhile so some of the arbitrary forms that are showing up in my drawings are now showing up in the stitching. I like this technique. It brings mystery into process. It is very loose and intuitive. Jackson Pollock once said “Because a painting has a life of its own, I try to let it live.”

Here’s a close-up of one of the panels. Each panel measures about 19” square. I like adding texture to pieces using thread that matches the fabric. The other drawing lines are inspired by what I see in the base painting. I added a face, some active lines, some textural backgrounds and some mysterious figurative drawings that came out of a day dream in this one.

Now I am experimenting with the square panels to create 3D shapes. Some look like scrolls, some like the Venus of Willendorf and others like disturbing faces. Not sure where they will end up. For now they are keeping me entertained.

Raw and Reassembled

The wonderful folks at the Visions Art Museum in San Diego have invited me to exhibit July 17 – October 3, 2021. I have been planning, assembling, writing statements, labeling and packing for that show for the past month. There is a lot to do before then. If you are in the San Diego area during that time please take moment or two to see the show. I would love to hear what you think about it.

At Play in the Garden of Stitch –
thoughts that come while eyeing the needle

A book:
At Play in the Garden of Stitch: thoughts that come while eyeing the needle

I’m on the final proofreading stage of a book about my techniques. As soon as it is ready I will post a link here for purchase. It has been a long and arduous journey to get this far with it. And I am proud of the result. I hope you have the opportunity to see it someday soon. Some of you may recognize your own stitching on the cover. They are samples from my workshops.

Spring

The weather is perfect right now and it is sometimes hard to stay in the studio because it is so beautiful outside. I am jealous of every hour away from the studio but, then again, the garden brings me joy and time to think. I’ll say yes to it too.

Time

I’m reading a book about geology (Annals of the Former World by John McPhee). In it McPhee writes about DEEP TIME and how the earth has changed over millennia. But I’m thinking about how time is moving too quickly. It’s eroding my sense of rhythm and progress. As a child the year seemed to move at a glacial pace. Now I’m rushing through thoughts trying to make them fit into the hours that I am able to stay awake. I am jealous of every minute spent away from my studio. It’s April already?

I wonder how long it took for this vine to get wider than the tree it is climbing?

Aging brings transition. I am reassembling the priorities in my life—focusing on depth instead of flash and silence instead of dialog.

This might have been a cheery bathroom tile at some point in its life. Now nature is taking over. With time it will disappear and those little tiles will be artifacts buried in layers of time.

Every year I put a word up on my computer monitor that inspires a long thought, something that lasts longer than a moment, something that can morph over months. I started this about three years ago when I posted It’s Process not Product on my computer. That note is still there. Last year it was Patience. I learned how to say I Can Wait. This year I started with Curiosity because I am still avidly pursuing more detail in my life, more texture, more knowledge. I may add the word Transition to focus on how things need time to change.

What is time to a rock?

Transformation

I am reading Annals of the Former World by John McPhee. It’s not an easy book to read. It focuses on geological formations and geologists and time. Geologists read rock like we read books. McPhee travels across the United States with five different geologists who decipher the terrain as they travel. Many of the sentences begin with the words billions or millions of years ago. Deep time.

When I read books like this I have to slow down. I admit that I skim past words that are unfamiliar hoping that the author will let me in on the secret in future sentences. I also acquire new words. Like lithic and Eocene and physiographic and down wasting, folded-and-faulted, fatigued rock, incompetent rock and inequigranular fabric.

I love rocks.

Morph started with scraps of other quilts.

Thinking about the beginning of time and forces beyond our control I started working on Morph. The bag of scraps came out and I stitched them together.

The piece grew to metamorphic blob. Metamorphism, as I understand it, is actually a process by which minerals are formed through heat and pressure.

Morph, hand-stitching detail, Paula Kovarik

Geological processes take time. Lots of time. The details in a substrate can tell the story of millennium.

Morph, machine-stitching detail, Paula Kovarik

Morph, 3-dimensional form detail, Paula Kovarik

As I added details to the melange of fabrics I also added seams that molded the fabric into hills.

Morph, 50” x 46” x 6”, 2021, Paula Kovarik

Billions of years ago this little patch of land I sit on would be at the bottom of a shallow ocean in a different continent altogether. Only one thing is constant: change. Morph can morph. Turn it 90 degrees and the sags sag in a different way. Hang it upside down and the terrain folds to a new narrative.

The final piece speaks to the ideas I had while reading McPhee’s book but also to how I feel about emergence, transformation, bulging body parts and sagging sentiments.

This past year built a tower of insights for me. How about you? Tell me about your stories of transformation.

Playtime

The other day I looked around and had a choice. I could finish a number of pieces that are still in process, clean the studio, create new work or drive into the sunset. I decided to let the stitch tell me what to do. There was quilt back laying around from a piece that never did get finished. So I sacrificed that piece to an experiment.

Playtime in black

A starting point

White thread and black fabric gives me a dramatic stage for random shapes.

The colony grows

Drawing more shapes to fill the space expands the playing field.

The colony is subdivided

Adding rounded rectangles in a casual grid subdivides the space.

Texture brings depth

Textural fills add the illusion of transparency.

Nearly finished

Maybe another layer?

Well that was fun. Now I need to go on to finish some of those pieces that are aching for some final stitching. Or not. Maybe I’ll try this again.

Playtime in white

Stitching figures with depth

A piece of canvas folded over some wool batting exaggerates the depth.

Adding a layer of circular shapes

White stitching gives me a guideline for textural fills.

Adding textural fills

Repeating elements like those little circles with antennas bring disparate images together in this crazy mix.

Completing the horizon.

Done.

Doesn’t it feel like the Jetsons could live here?

Another day another distraction

Since I can’t really drive into the sunset this experiment in stitching brings a little joy instead.

Give it a try!

An interview with Jane Dunnewold

I had the delightful opportunity to talk with Jane Dunnewold last month as part of her Creative Strength Training interview series. Jane has a robust and comprehensive variety of classes and lectures for artists that are recognized world wide. Take a moment to learn about her practice and her class offerings here. I just registered for one of her lectures today.

Here’s the video recording of our conversation.