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Parallel Lives : Art from 2 minds, 4 hands
Cooper Young Community Association offices (CYCA)
2298 Young Avenue, Memphis TN 38104

May 20 – June 11, 2011
Hours: Monday, Wednesday, Thursday: Noon – 5pm, Tuesday: 12:30 – 6pm, Closed Friday.
Call 725-0308 for private showings

Opening reception: 6-9pm, Friday, May 20, 2011

Playful fabrics and edgy toys on display at CYCA
Textures, toys and stories will be on display at the CYCA offices from May to June. Parallel Lives captures the spirit and sense of two Memphis artists. Jean Holmgren and Paula Kovarik have both worked as graphic designers but find art in odd and different directions. The work includes Toys from the Other Side by Jean Holmgren, art quilts from Paula Kovarik and Conversation Piece an installation revealing their collaborative process.
Jean Holmgren, an award winning graphic designer, exercises an “artists with other jobs” pathology in a collection of sculptures and mixed media pieces inspired by Tom Waits lyrics and life’s lessons on how to be a girl.
Paula’s medium is fabric and thread. Her nationally recognized award winning quilts reveal a quirky doodle-strewn DNA. She surfaces what lies beneath in streams of threads, colors, and patterns. In the new medium of art quilts, her work is a storyboard of complex systems: cities, gardens, and global systems.
Both artists have roots in traditional women’s genres, but with all the twists and edges that they have captured in their lives as designers, artists, and women.


Paula Kovarik
paula@sogray.com
Online gallery: PaulaKovarik.com





Jean Holmgren
jean@pgdg.com

Why Art? Why Bother?

I often wonder what difference 'this' will make. 'This' being whatever I happen to be engaged in, creating art, doing hair, cooking diner -- what difference will this make in the world, in the bigger picture. I struggle with this as an artist, I struggled with it in my former career as a cosmetologist.
I have found few answers.
Then, wile doing hand work (not my favorite, but the time I catch up on viewing things like TED.com videos) I came across this great talk by JR.

He talks about just that -- making a difference in the world WITH ART! Inspiring and motivating. Give it a look!