I Need a Third Eye sold this week. It was whisked away to its new home after its trip to New Orleans at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art. The Cohen's have a beautiful home full of great art. It is an honor to be included in their collection.
I Need a Third Eye, Paula Kovarik, 45" x 45"
This piece actually put me on a new path in my practice.
It taught me that nothing is precious, all things belong and chaos can have an underlying order.
See a post about its construction here
I emptied my thread ends box today. It held the threads that didn't get used on a piece this year. These threads were active players without a field to play in. They came into existence at the end of thoughts rather than the beginnings. They got snipped off and thrown to the side after trying hard to be part of the team. There are a lot of them.
I've grown used to not being satisfied with each and every work that I create. Like these thread ends some work just doesn't work. The process of creating has become more important to me than the finishing up. For each work that gets finished I estimate that there are two or three pieces that get thrown under the table. Thus, I have fallen in love with my rotary cutter, it facilitates my cut-up-and-rework frame of mind. I am beginning to see a signature style in all of the work. I am drawn to black. I like surprises and there is an undertow of anxiety in all of them.
I named the work I finished: Aquifer, Beast, Chaos Ensues, Focus on Something Else, Glyphs, I Need a Third Eye, Ladder to Elsewhere, Looking for the Pattern that Connects, Signals, Thugs, Unglued, and Unmapped.
And now I am working on a piece called Ship of Fools.
Ship of Fools work in progress
2018 will be filled with new challenges: a one man show at a local art museum, a proposal to a local venue for a juried show in Memphis, several teaching positions and days and days of continuing my work. It's those last items that I look forward to the most. They provide a silence and thoughtfulness that fills me up.
Happy New Year everyone. Hope to meet some of you this year in workshops. Check out the listings at the right for dates and locations.
May your studio be filled with inspiration and your days full of mystery and wonder.
I use this mighty tool to deconstruct pieces that don't speak to me anymore. I look for those quiet ones that seem unbalanced, pretentious or unsuccessful. They hide in piles beneath my work table — murmuring. Some are sharing false narratives. Some seem to be trying too hard. Others just plain bore me. So I get out the rotary cutter and start cutting.
I'll often end up with a pile that stretches to fill my entire work table. I try not to think about how many hours were spent creating the pieces in the first place. It's about the process not the product right?
I Need a Third Eye, work in progress, Paula Kovarik
The varying stitch, cloth and colors create an animated surface.
I Need a Third Eye, work in progress detail, Paula Kovarik
Then I start stitching again, connecting the diverse pieces to each other by adding another layer of meaning to the story.
I Need a Third Eye, work in progress detail, Paula Kovarik
And then I add some more. Until it seems to be enough.
I Need a Third Eye, final crop, Paula Kovarik
