ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
In Raw and Reassembled, Paula Kovarik reflects on isolation and the tensions inherent in any creative process. For many artists, she observes, isolation can afford much needed time to think and experiment. The isolation of the COVID19 pandemic, however, challenged her on many levels. As she explains,
“… this isolation felt less like a creative opportunity, and more like a fence around my thoughts and aspirations. Forced isolation created a raw and rambling set of questions that started in doubt. Why do I do this? What am I trying to say? What should I say? As this observation underscores, not all isolation is the same.”
Self-imposed separateness in order to pursue a goal, such as making art, is quite different from confinement that is imposed due to an external threat.
Experiencing this type of isolation, she looked for a new sense of purpose and found it in the tiniest details. This search for meaning “grew into a new approach to fabric as art. As always, discovery was lurking in the process and the practice.” Central to her new approach was cutting up some of her existing, finished art quilts. As she recounts: Projects that had served their time on a wall became scraps of raw material. Morphing the fabric into masks, toys and quilt collages gave voice to my feelings of anonymity and isolation. Fabric and thread that had lingered in rolled-up piles became small starts to new thoughts, new shapes, new delights—and a jump to three dimensions.
Inspirations, techniques, and works are as unique and varied as artists themselves. For Paula, the key is the practice of art itself: the explorations in stitch “that bring details to the foreground, suture disparate elements together, and sculpt texture into the fabric.” Her art is a practice, similar to meditation as a practice. Clarity and focus are equal manifestations with the artwork itself. As she reflects,
“I know that art makes the invisible visible and speaks the unspoken. This practice, these pieces, bring me closer to that truth.”
ABOUT THE ARTIST
After thirty years as a graphic designer, Paula Kovarik now pursues her artwork full-time. Her work has been shown in national and international shows devoted to the art of the quilt and is included in several collections, including the International Quilt Museum, Memphis International Airport and the Memphis Urban Art Commission. She has been profiled in American Craft, FiberArtNow and Art Quilting Studio magazines. Based in Memphis, Tennessee, she received her degree in design from Southern Illinois University.
EXHIBITION GALLERY
