I woke up with a bad attitude.
It hasn’t gone away yet.
Normally I have more than one thing to work on at a time. But not now. They are all done. Mostly.
I am blocking spontaneity, avoiding intuition, and embellishing emotion.
Time to duck my head into a cold stream.
I think I’ll take a look at those scraps again.
or take a walk.
or a nap.
It was fate--the day I learned about crankies. Ever since seeing a Red Grooms exhibit at the Brooks Museum in Memphis I have been haunted by the idea of a moving quilt. For those of you who have no idea what I am talking about go to this website for a fun trip through crankie land. So here's the tale of the tape for my crankie, I watch too much tv news.
It started with a box of white cloth scraps. I assembled them roughly into a 16 foot scroll.
I added focus points to the scroll by sandwiching colored scraps between the outer layer and the cotton batting. I admit that it was quite random at this stage. I really didn’t know what my story was going to be.
Next step was to stabilize the layers. I stitched along each seam in white or black thread. If the seam was horizontal I added a black thread line that highlighted it to add a sense of action to the piece. There were a lot of seams.
At this stage I decided that the piece was going to be about my anxieties regarding our government and how the media hypes up my anxiety. This initial stitching was about the pussy hat march.
Sometimes the drawings seemed too literal so I tore them out. Goodbye pussy hats. Don’t get me wrong, I am a strong supporter of the womens march. The drawings just seemed too specific.
Eventually the scroll filled up with monsters, money, vultures, disasters, boulders and tv heads. It took about 3 weeks of stitching to get to this point. Catharctic.
I’m not comfortable if I don’t have a project going so when we were preparing for a road trip that would last a few weeks I rolled up the scroll and put it into a bag and carried it with me. Each night I would add more hand stitching.
Details added depth.
With the scroll finished I enlisted my son to do a video of it. We taped it to the hallway wall, mounted a camera to a skateboard and recorded a non-stop video. It gave me an idea of what the scroll would look like in motion.
We even tried it outside with his drone. That’s me ducking as the drone came over the scroll. Crazy.
I started thinking about the housing of the scroll and decided that, of course, it should look like a tv.
My friend, Yvonne Bobo, came up with this brilliant way to configure the scroll in a housing that could be mechanized.
Here is our test quilt in the contraption she created.
My brother, Charles Havelka, refined the set up and built a beautiful cabinet for the piece. He is a master woodworker.
I couldn’t be more proud of the final product. And, I couldn’t have done it without their help. There were times of despair and times of hope and challenge. It’s a folly, I know. But it was worth the journey.
Here's a video of the scroll in its entirety. Enjoy!
Sometimes pieces emerge out of my subconscious without warning. My task is to allow that to happen. That is what happened with Beastie Boy and His Pals.
I am appalled by the way our government is being run. The creatures that inhabit the power centers have changed the way I think about threats. As a citizen I vote in and pay attention to local, regional and federal issues. I read articles that discuss both sides of issues. I listen to the news from other countries. I try to sift out the skewed, embellished and outright outrageous to come to an understanding. And I feel helpless.
Solace comes in the work.
Beastie Boy and His Pals started with this scrappy composition. I have learned that scraps can talk.
The composition had two sides. A cool side and a warm side with static in between. Similar to the dialog being broadcast to us each day without rest. Like the two parties playing their he said he said game.
As mammals we are predisposed to see faces in inanimate objects. The instinct is a way to protect ourselves from potential threats. So as I added sections to the composition I started seeing beasts -- beasts with eyes, beasts with tails, beasts with goggles. I liked how the three beastie figures outlined in the pic at the right started to create a nest of a composition.
But then I turned it upside down and liked it even more. Beastie Boy appeared to hunch into the room and his pals were all there.
The dialog continued on a detail level.
I heard from the folks at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts yesterday. They let me know that the workshop I am teaching (Follow the Thread) in October is a GO. Reading the email instantly brought up thoughts of those cool mountain nights, the rushing waters of nearby streams, the great fun I had working with my students, and the feeling that there are some positive things happening in the world.
Driving into Arrowmont, an oasis of creativity.
I love teaching. Spending some concentrated time with dedicated artists is a gift that keeps on giving. I am inspired, honored and excited to be part of their creative process. When we happen upon little aha! moments during the week there is a real sense of accomplishment. It's a tonic for my soul.
Our workshop from the catwalk above. It's a great space to work in.
So today, in 100 and above heat, I am dreaming of Arrowmont in October. It's a daydream of cool optimism. Join us if you can, there is still time to register. I'll be teaching free-motion quilting at its free-est.
Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts
Gatlinburg, Tennessee
October 21-27
I Need a Third Eye sold this week. It was whisked away to its new home after its trip to New Orleans at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art. The Cohen's have a beautiful home full of great art. It is an honor to be included in their collection.
I Need a Third Eye, Paula Kovarik, 45" x 45"
This piece actually put me on a new path in my practice.
It taught me that nothing is precious, all things belong and chaos can have an underlying order.
See a post about its construction here
