connections

Everything's connected, ©2014, Paula Kovarik

Inspired by that game we play of naming the shapes in clouds, several of my drawings have new colonies of these simple outlines of cats, dogs, gears, cars, clouds—whatever pops into my head. Using that as a starting point I started making shapes that nested into each other on this quilt. It looked like nonsense to me but I wasn't too worried about it. Trusting the process was part of the fun. Then I started wondering why these particular shapes showed up in my experimentation. Why was I compelled to draw a chicken, or a gear, or a tractor, or a headed blob?  What point was I trying to make? Then, last Saturday, I went to see A Fierce Green Fire, the Battle for a Living Planet. It is a documentary summarizing the environmental movement. One of the narrators explored the concept of connections. Simply, Everything is Connected. Even if we don't see it. That's why I added these dotted lines.

escape into pattern

twisted bowties, ©2014, Paula Kovarik

I resolved what I want to do with the cloudlike piece in my previous post but just can't face the work. So, as usual, I escape by working with pattern. Here is the bowtie pattern I created a couple of years ago, with a different colorway (you can never have too much orange right?) and a twist. I think I like them both. Illustrator allows me to twist my patterns automatically but to create a tile that works for reproduction I would have to start from scratch to redraw it. Not sure if it is worth it.

cloudlike shapes

cloud shapes morphed, Paula Kovarik, 2014

A recurring theme in my stitching, clouds, taken one step further.This is the Where's Waldo version of rounded cloudlike shapes morphing into recognizable shapes. It's done on a scalloped edged cotton tablecloth folded in half. No planning, just playing.

trust the scrap heap

Trust the scrap heap composition

I spent the last couple of days exploring a new concept for a piece about urban sprawl. Where to begin? What does it look like? I was stumped. So, instead, I decided to just play a game with myself that would hopefully crystalize some of the vague notions I had about the construction of the piece. I played the TRUST THE SCRAP HEAP game. I emptied a bin of scraps onto my worktable and chose any solid scrap that was under 10" square and no smaller than 2". I then cut each scrap into a 1.5" strip and randomly sewed them together. Good thing I only emptied one of my scrap bins because I would have been at the cutting table all week. 

Strips all put together, I then cut them into 1.5" units and arranged them into a grid.

Now the revelation. You know those beauty sessions where they tell you what season you are? I am definitely autumn. This scrap heap showed me that I am drawn to neutrals and dirty midtone colors with an occasional spark of lime green or white. The composition worked because, even though I sewed the colors together randomly, I was able to rearrange the grid to play off the neutrals. Would I have chosen this set of colors for a piece without this random exercise? No. But, it has some validity since I chose the colors in past projects and they are all a piece of my aesthetic.

And now I know where I want to go with that urban sprawl piece.

tree warp

tree warp, Paula Kovarik, 2014

This shadow was a delightful sight on a bright winter morning. Looked as if the shadow had gone into a space warp. I actually stopped my car in the middle of the (sparsely populated) street to snap a picture. I'd like to do a mural of a tree shadow cast on a building or fence like this. Then wandering down the street would yield a spacy perspective of seasons gone by.