Puzzles

I love puzzles. It’s a treasure hunt with rewards. Something about that quiet contemplation of shape, color and texture soothes me.

I guess that’s why I am drawn to this art form. Piecing together disparate elements to create a whole is a challenge that never ends. This particular piece grew from scraps of quilts gone by — those pieces that didn’t quite make the cut in other quilts have a new life here. I stitched the scraps together using my free motion foot or a decorative stitch that added to the level of detail. As I was piecing together these scraps characters appeared, shapes repeated and textures multiplied. I used the base composition as a stage for other characters that I added in with overstitching.

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Things we might not notice without closer inspection. 2021, Paula Kovarik

The following are detail shots that might give you an idea of what started to appear as I was working on the whole. I started to run out of scraps toward the end. Which gave me a choice: cut up another quilt or finish the composition. I decided to end the composition here so that I could focus on other ideas that are floating in my studio. I may come back to it if other scraps become available.

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Let’s stitch together

I’ll be teaching stitch techniques in San Diego in September. Click on the image to learn more.

Let the fun begin

I’m getting ready to leave my studio for a week to attend a workshop on collage. There is so much to do before I leave that my attention wanders while I make lists, clean up the space and plan for my return. That part called “cleaning up my space” always leads to new ideas for work. So I abandoned all the chores I didn’t want to do while concentrating on what I did want to do.

I cut up another quilt.

This quilt hung in the hallway of our house for about 7 years. I finally took it down and substituted a different piece. It is called File Sharing and I think I made it back in 2010. I like the color palette, I like some of the stitching, but I’m not too fond of the composition. So it became a candidate for recycling.

I’ve been thinking about how pieces linger in the studio. Repurposing them gives them new life and me a new challenge. This time I wanted to cut this quilt up into a traditional pattern called Storm at Sea. I have been playing with that pattern in an illustration program and wanted to see what would happen if I used quilted pieces to create it in a different way.

I made a set of templates with a stiff matte board. After cutting out the template pieces I am left with windows that I can position over the quilt to preview what I will cut. I simply use a pencil to draw the outline on the quilt and then cut the piece with scissors.

I think there is a song with the lyrics “the first cut is the deepest…” I was humming that while cutting into the quilt. It is a point of no return for this process. No amount of stitching or glueing will bring this quilt back to its original form. You have to just trust the process.

Here is the result of that day’s work.

Putting the pieces together into a layout is like playing with puzzles—one of my favorite things to do.

I attached the pieces to a backing fabric with small pieces of Misty Fuse.

Then started stitching them together onto the cloth background with a decorative stitch.

That’s when my sewing machine started acting up. And then it finally froze. I think it was reminding me that I had a lot of chores to do. So I guess I will have to come back to this piece once I return from the workshop. I have ideas on how I will add even more stitching to this beginning.

Watch this space.

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.