The eyes have it

Sometimes you just have to stop and play. I've been thinking about animating the inanimate. Playing with stones and sticks and stains. What if they could all talk? or whisper or shout? What would they say about us? Could they give us insight on our confusion? Does standing still change life's boundaries? When rocks slide is it a party or a collapse? Do indelible stains mark a territory? If all objects had eyes would they choose to keep them closed to avoid watching our antics?

The google eye on the sidewalk prompted me to draw a crowd of eyes, as if everything around us is alive. This prompted me to think about cloth with eyes, clothes with eyes, quilts with eyes. So I designed a pattern.  Maybe I'll do one with mouths or ears or noses next. Or eyes with feet or eyes with hands or eyes with antennas.

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Eyes drawing, Paula Kovarik

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I think I want a scarf with eyes. Or a shirt with eyes.

Yes, sometimes you just have to play.

Fun with patterns

The process started with this simple drawing.

Summer abundance makes me want to dance all day. If it weren't for the 107 heat index I would be rollicking with the skinks and yellow jackets in my garden. For now I will stay indoors and wait for the moon.

Spent the day yesterday playing with pattern. Here is a little glimpse into the process.

Spending way too much time at the computer

I'm preparing for a speaking engagement in Little Rock this weekend and designing and redesigning Powerpoint presentations. Always a challenge.

So yesterday I took a little break and brought out one of my earlier patterns and experimented with a new colorway. I uploaded the tile to Spoonflower and ordered a test swatch. I may start offering the fabric for sale through that site as an experiment.

Here is Geometry in Spring dress.

Geometry, ©2014 Paula Kovarik

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.

colorburst

Spent some time this week playing with pattern again. It is good to go to a different medium when stalled in the design process. Here is the result. I think I will call this Scrambled Eggs. It uses the 2014 color of the year, Radiant Orchid.

Scrambled Eggs, ©2014, Paula Kovarik