Inner path goes public

The Common Thread Symposium hosted by the North Carolina State University College of Design’s Department of Art+Design is on November 6-7, 2015 (find out more here). I am one of the featured artists.

Preparing a workshop focused on linework is daunting. It will be the first time I teach something about how I approach line and design. I have to look within to create an outward path. The hardest part of doing this is figuring out how to narrow it all down to a four-hour exercise. It's an opportunity that I feel ready for despite the mountains of ideas I need to edit.

If you are near Raleigh, North Carolina on November 6-7 take some time to participate in this event. I'd love to meet you and share some thoughts. Check out these speakers and workshops:

Lecturers

Dr. Susan Kay-Williams, Chief Executive Office of the Royal School of Needlework
Ilze Aviks, Contemporary Embroidery Artist
Precious Lovell, Contemporary Fiber Artist and Independent Researcher
Andrea Donnelly, Conceptual Weaver

Workshop Leaders

Ilze Aviks, Contemporary Embroidery Artist
Precious Lovell, Contemporary Fiber Artist and Independent Researcher
Gabrielle Duggan, Contemporary Fiber Artist and Educator
Mary Kircher, Contemporary Weaver
Kelly Kye, Contemporary Quilter
Mackenzie Bullard, Natural Dye Researcher

I had a glass of wine with my oatmeal last night

Comfort food and catnip. That's what it has come down to. My head is so fractured with focuses the threads careen forward with untrammeled exuberance. I have eight serious pieces in process and I flit from one to another like a ping pong ball on crack.

Must focus. Must breathe.

I think it was the time away from the studio that did it. Images flicker in my short term memory with such a radiance of immediacy that I am compelled to follow their paths.

Pollinators, detail, Paula Kovarik

Bifurcation. It's a word that floated to the top of my mind the other day. A word that ended up being my vocabulary word-for-the-day. Why? I have no clue. But bifurcate it did. It means "to fork or divide into two branches." So when I look it up on the web the standard rabbit holes show up on Google where scientists and mathematicians start explaining bifurcation theory. The diagrams look suspiciously like my brain on dual focus mode. And I start to study bifurcation diagrams thinking that maybe the answer lies in a mathematical model. STOP.

Lately my bifurcation looks like this:

Can too many ideas lead to fuzzy thinking?


I did not win $200,000

ArtPrize Seven announced the top five 2-D entries by public vote today. I was not one of them. And, I have to say it was no surprise.  Even though, in my wildest dreams, I could think of ways to make that prize money work for me and my community, the field was broad and full of worthy pieces. 

I did learn a lot from this opportunity.

  • I am uncomfortable getting praise. It just plain makes me nervous. I don't want to appear egotistical but at the same time I don't want to seem like I don't trust myself and my work. I usually say thank you with a sincere look into the person's eyes and hope that the subject will change soon.
  • I do like it when people come to me with their ideas of what my work means to them. It's so much easier to respond to that. The dialog is ongoing in my head and any extra tidbits from others just makes my vision more whole. And isn't that the point? Isn't that the main reason I do this stuff? To elicit response, to open my thoughts to others, to bring my point of view to the public arena, to let the work be bare naked in the spotlight? I love it when it works.

  • I don't like competitions (and this also goes for openings), I met a number of artists who were avidly marketing their work. Others were very passive or invisible. Though I admire the self-confidence of some of the more glib artists I am of the second group. I am not a garrulous person. It is truly uncomfortable for me to be in a space where I need to "sell" my work to others. I have often thought that the perfect experience for me during an opening or within a competition would be through webcam.

My best wishes to these worthy artists. I wish them all the best in the coming week when Grand Rapids will name the winner. I have added the top five public picks below and a link to their work. Judge for yourself, and contact the artist to tell them what their works mean to you. I know they would appreciate it. Better yet, go to Grand Rapids and vote for them. Make their dreams a reality.

Top Five by public vote - Two-Dimensional

  • As Above at Grand Rapids Art Museum, by Judith Braun from New York, New York
  • Triple Play at Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum, by Anni Crouter from Flint, Michigan, winner of the 2nd Place $75,000 public vote award at ArtPrize 2013
  • michigan petoskey stone at DeVos Place Convention Center, by Randall Libby from Manistee, Michigan
  • Northwood Awakening at Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum, by Loveless PhotoFiber from Frankfort, Michigan, winner of the $200,000 ArtPrize 2013 Public Vote Grand Prize
  • In a Promised Land… at DeVos Place Convention Center, by Shawn Michael Warren from Harvey, Illinois

head spinning

OK, I gotta admit yesterday was pretty thrilling. As an ArtPrize Seven participant, I am one of many artists looking for the love. And, I am one of the extremely lucky ones because I was invited to show at the prestigious Grand Rapids Art Museum, smack dab in the middle of all the ruckus. (Thank you Ron Platt, American Craft Magazine, and the winds of chance that blow through our universe.)

Round one voting began last Wednesday and extends until Saturday of this week. The top 20 finalists (the top five in each of 4 categories) will be announced on Sunday, Oct. 4. Then Round 2 voting begins. The public will vote for their favorite and prizes will be awarded on Oct. 9. Top prize is $200,000.

Now back to yesterday. The ArtPrize website keeps a running tally of the votes and which pieces are leading the group in terms of the popular vote (so far 220,963 votes have been cast). The folks in Grand Rapids can vote for as many artists as they like in this round one vote session. And it looks like, as of yesterday, that I qualified for the top 25 list in the 2-D category. Though I know that the list will change each day running up to the announcement on Saturday, the fact that I made it into that group once is enough. Thank you, Grand Rapids.

Be still my beating heart.

Heartfelt, stands at the beginning of the display at the Grand Rapids Art Museum. The piece was inspired by my mother, who would be cheering on the sidelines if she was with us today.

Shiny things

It's risky to leave my studio. Inspirations can turn my head into a spinning whirly-gig. Traveling to art shows, through countryside that is new, or sleeping in a different bed can birth new ideas or make me lose focus. Sometimes it takes a long time to re-establish balance while focused on so many shiny things that pull my heartstrings.

A mural by Natalia Pawlus found at the parking garage adjacent to the Grand Rapids Art Museum inspired me with its sparse composition and dynamic line work.

The Meyer May house in Grand Rapids is one of the most completely restored Frank Lloyd Wright homes.

The Meyer May house in Grand Rapids is one of the most completely restored Frank Lloyd Wright homes.

And there are so many incredible artists, so many inspirations. My studio seems to mock me with a silence that comes with sorting out what I saw and what it means to my work. I may even question my medium: maybe I should become a weaver? a sculptor? a poet? Why am I focused on fabric and stitch when so many other mediums are full of promise? Would paint free the loose screws in my compulsive practice?

And what inspirations! World class sculptures in the Grand Rapids Meijer Gardens, world-class fiber work at the Muskegon Museum of Art's Extreme Fibers exhibit, a guided tour through a completely restored Frank Lloyd Wright home in Grand Rapids.

This sculpture by Laura Ford hides in tall grasses and pine trees at the Meijer Gardens in Grand Rapids, Michigan. I would go back there tomorrow to see this sculpture garden again.

These barns seem to be buriedby corn, a common image all the way home.

These barns seem to be buried
by corn, a common image all the way home.

Not to mention over 1500 pieces in the ArtPrize Seven show. Check out Hanna Concannon, Martha Bishop, Sayaka Oishi, Colleen Kole, Tamara Kostianovsky, Kazuki Takemura, Armando Ramos, MaryJo Fox Fell and many others on the ArtPrize site.

Even the ride home to Memphis inspired thoughts of doing pastoral compositions based on those horizontal farms with big skies.

Eventually I will find my way again -- re-familiarize myself with projects that are almost done and allow for some explorations into new frontiers. For now I will browse the photos and do more research on what I saw, felt and inhaled. Here are some links to new and old artists who inspired me this summer:

  • Maggy Rozycki Hiltner working with found fabric and retro imagery to explore childhood memories.
  • Jan Hopkins working with grapefruit peels, hydrangea petals, eucalyptus leaves and ostrich shell beads to create sculpture.
  • Laura Ford for her whimsical naturalistic bronze sculptures.
  • Kumi Yamashita for her way with warp and weft.
  • Natalia Pawlus for her haunting mural at the parking garage in Grand Rapids; and
  • Jim Triezenberg for his magnificent joie de vivre in his sculpture: Dino-Zar.