“I look for ways to escape the worry by using saturated colors…”
December 29, 2021 6:24 PM   Subscribe

Please enjoy the work of Paula Kovarik. You may want to start with her work featured here as part of Rhodes College’s Domestic Studies.

Here is a page dedicated to her current work.

From the galleries page you can find more of her COVID specific pieces.

You may also enjoy reading her words (the title comes from her 24 Dec 2021 Journal entry)


You can find other artists via Rhodes College on 2020 through viewing their collection “Curation in Context.”
posted by CMcG (23 comments total) 26 users marked this as a favorite
 
If you see any pieces that particularly speak to you (or find another artist you like via the Rhodes College Curation in Context collection), I’d love to know what you’ve found and why you like it.
posted by CMcG at 6:25 PM on December 29, 2021 [1 favorite]


Just did a quick scroll through and love these! Will be returning for a closer look.
posted by rpfields at 6:50 PM on December 29, 2021 [1 favorite]


Ooh, CMcG, I just asked for some pointers to cool women artists a couple of months ago! I am very excited to see Kovarik's work.

She has a wonderful variety of styles - some of her works remind me of Doodle Art posters, and some remind me of Paul Klee. (And others don't remind me of anything and I can appreciate them more directly.)

The journal is wonderful - I especially enjoyed her entry on second thoughts.

Oh, and wow - her archives go back to 2008! Such a lot to explore.

I'm adding this to my bookmarks as a great thing to go read when I run out of AskMe posts every day (heh).

Thanks so much for sharing this - I really like Kovarik's work, and I am really glad to know about it!
posted by kristi at 6:52 PM on December 29, 2021 [1 favorite]


"I Watch Too Much TV News" is great. Thank you!
posted by MonkeyToes at 7:01 PM on December 29, 2021 [1 favorite]


This is lovely. I used to do embroidery as art long ago. This makes me want to start again.
Just in the first five minutes I found this wonderful thing
Thank you for sharing.
posted by Zumbador at 7:20 PM on December 29, 2021 [3 favorites]


ChaosEnsues is excellent. The grid patterns are amazing. It invokes street grid patterns, diagram/schematics of both land and sky.
posted by clavdivs at 7:20 PM on December 29, 2021 [2 favorites]


Where's the "Buy now" button?
posted by perhapses at 7:22 PM on December 29, 2021 [1 favorite]


Those embroideries are beautifully intricate.
posted by Serene Empress Dork at 8:35 PM on December 29, 2021 [1 favorite]


Wonderful!
posted by storybored at 9:31 PM on December 29, 2021 [1 favorite]


So, if I want to learn to make art in this general medium, where do I start? Quilting? Hand sewing? Machine sewing? Are there books that can help me learn, like there are books about ceramics, or figure drawing? Classes in the Seattle area or online?

I loved the incredibly beautiful and complex quilts in an exhibition I saw in Tucson a few years ago at the Desert Museum, and have thought since then that it's an art form I'd like to learn, but I have no idea how to get started, particularly if I'm not interested in "traditional" quilting but rather in, I don't know, fiber arts? Fiber sculpture? Painting with fabric and thread?
posted by cnidaria at 12:40 AM on December 30, 2021 [2 favorites]


My favourite style of quilting is the kind of work where the stitching is just done on a plain background and is complex and interesting. This is incredible.
posted by jacquilynne at 6:19 AM on December 30, 2021 [3 favorites]


I am of a sciencey bent, and feel drawn to the works that look like topo maps and circuit diagrams. And I love the complimentary colors in this one and I got to this one and just said whoa.
posted by BrashTech at 6:37 AM on December 30, 2021 [1 favorite]


These are amazing, thank you so much for posting CMcG!
posted by esoteric things at 8:13 AM on December 30, 2021 [1 favorite]


jacquilynne, exactly! The one you linked is amazing. I'm not sure why I love stitching more than regular painting -- maybe something to do with the presence of texture and a bit of three-dimensionality? Whatever it is, it's gorgeous.
posted by cnidaria at 10:15 AM on December 30, 2021 [1 favorite]


This one feels like night shadows in the desert -- coyotes and large birds, constellations over a spare landscape that amplifies any light and shadow cast on it. I love it.
posted by cnidaria at 10:19 AM on December 30, 2021 [1 favorite]


cnidaria, difficult piecing and quilting techniques are mostly taught in quilting classes at guilds or retreats, which can be either for or against modern design, but by now mostly for. Art departments can be accepting or extremely scornful of anything they see as craft, although the range is getting wider, as this whole family of exhibitions shows.

Everything I clicked through on in the exhibition you linked is standard quilting - the highest technical standard, but that’s independent of style, mostly. Note that the organization describes itself:
Join our dynamic creative community and help make the art quilt universally recognized as a fine art medium!
They are a quilting organization, they are working to be recognized as artists.


I had a late friend who left art school over this but that was decades ago, lots of feminist art fight since then. I’m not a quilter but I check out what’s going on in quilts because of quilters I’ve known. Anyway, I’m in Seattle and so was she, there’s lots of quilting here. Me mail me or just call Pacific Fabrics, they’ll know. Maybe SAQA will have a local?
posted by clew at 11:37 AM on December 30, 2021


thank you clew! I was not sure of the vocabulary to use, so it's very helpful to know (1) local resources to explore, and (2) quilting *is* the correct nomenclature. yay!
posted by cnidaria at 11:46 AM on December 30, 2021


Oh my gosh about Round and Round it Goes that jacquilynne linked to -

* I can’t zoom in anything like as far as I want to

* I would like that image as a postcard or poster, and as a quilt?!?

* One of the hidden technical difficulties of quilting is that even quilting cotton is slightly anisotropically stretchy, and controlling that is tricky. I think that quilting pattern would have been especially difficult in that regard and I wonder what order it was done in.
posted by clew at 12:06 PM on December 30, 2021 [3 favorites]


Oh gosh, so many of them have reverse sides that are complementary in imagery as well as being literally the backing, that’s great. And difficult!
posted by clew at 12:16 PM on December 30, 2021 [2 favorites]


preferring instead to use my machine’s automatic cutter that knots the threads on the underside.

I cried a little at this. I have a beast of a machine, all metal, have been sewing since 8th grade home ec and I had no idea this wondrous innovation existed. I was grateful just for zig zag and I have sewn on a treadle machine with no reverse (actually it was very calming).
posted by TWinbrook8 at 1:42 PM on December 30, 2021 [3 favorites]


She’s published a book, with exercises! A teaching book! At Play in the Garden of Stitch.
posted by clew at 5:31 PM on December 30, 2021 [2 favorites]


Well, clew, that sure is convenient! Seattle Public Library doesn't have it, but the wonder of the internet allowed me to order a copy through Ada's Technical Books. Will certainly have to supplement with some more basic sewing resources -- but I'm excited!
posted by cnidaria at 8:26 PM on December 30, 2021


Someday a sewing meetup, cnidaria.
posted by clew at 4:23 PM on January 3, 2022 [2 favorites]


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