Kari Souders Artist

2010-03-06T05:37:00.000-08:00

To see the full Article:
http://quiltingarts.com/blogs/pippa/archive/2010/02/23/bodyquilting-how-kari-souders-expresses-the-female-body-through-quilt-making.aspx

BodyQuilting: How Kari Souders expresses the female body through quilt making

23 Feb 2010 by pippapatchwork

I’ve always been intrigued by the link between contemporary and historical quilting, and the ways in which this traditional craft lives on in the work of modern day artists. Therefore, I was thrilled to have the chance to ask artist Kari Souders a few questions about her quilt paintings, which explore the intrinsic ties between quilt making and the experiences of women of the past and present. Through the construction of her pieces and the materials that she selects, Kari draws analogies between her art and the rituals of the female body. Her latest exhibit, “BodyQuilting” is currently on display at George School in Newtown, PA until March 4th. For those who are unable to attend, Kari’s insights offer a glimpse into the nuanced symbolism of her work.

Your current exhibition features quilt paintings that explore the parallels between quilt making and women’s bodies. How do you make this connection in your work?
The obsessive process of hand sewing, cutting, patching, ripping, and layering textures and patterns to make a quilt is rooted in ritual. Quilt making is a very physical process. Some women have crossed over from the quilting bee to the Botox party; nevertheless, I wonder if our fundamental desires have remained the same. Like my work, these contemporary body rituals are rooted in physicality; the breaking down by cutting, ripping, and tearing in order to stitch, patch, and layer something new and more beautiful. Although sometimes painful, the physical aspect of these processes is an outlet and opportunity for women to embrace their bodies.
You mention the obsessive, repetitive quality of quilt making. How is this symbolically important in your work?
The obsessive process and all-consuming ritual gives women a chance for their minds to escape the confines of life and to be self-possessed and anticipatory for their new creation. In a society where consumerism has become our realm of worship, I want to infuse art with its original spiritual and ritual function. My paintings are intensely worked until the surface has crevices and areas that appear both destructive and regenerative. My work attempts to ignite the ritualistic flame that transcends time by creating works that are structurally iconic, and whose process is based on obsessive detail and endless repetition. The intensity and obsessive process allows me to interweave my collective unconscious and life experiences.
Many of your pieces incorporate writing. What is the role of text in your art?
Not only text, but also images, surround us and deliver fragments of meanings. Currently, I have been interweaving both new and old quilts with text related to our modern day obsession with body transformations. Words such as augmentations, plucking, lasers, peels, dying, rhinoplasty, face lift, transplants, liposuction, durmabrasions, lasik surgeries, botox injections, restyline filler, juvedurm, filler, dermal fillers, prollenium, and ayaluronic acid represent the rewriting on the surface of our bodies that has become our modern-day ritual. The text fragments in the work juxtapose the bits of unwritten language that the quilts embody.
Quilts are also composed of bits of cloths and fabrics that elicit the body. We see our flesh as compartmentalized fragments that can be resurfaced, patched, and transformed into new canvases piece by piece. In essence, we are quilting our bodies with the evolving text of culture and the visual standards of desire. It is the continuation of the unspoken need for women to exhibit and perfect their aesthetic desires out of something seen as flawed or broken which stems from the traditions of women being regarded as objects.
You clearly have an interest in the history of women.
Do you feel that quilting enables you to tap into this history more effectively than other mediums?
Representing the creative traditions of women and acknowledging their voice is of utmost importance. I have always had an interest in history, women’s issues, and the culture we live in. Although I am a painter, my work is fundamentally and intrinsically connected to quilting and I can’t think of any other transformative woman’s craft that would be more effective on so many poignant levels. Quilting, a practical and meaningful aesthetic practice, has offered and still provides women with a chance to gather and communicate with each other. Quilts tell unwritten stories that are deeply ingrained in American culture and traditions, as well as express personal aesthetics. They are bits and pieces of women’s lives and ways of living that span over generations and stem from all socioeconomic circumstances.
How do you construct your quilt paintings?
I use strips of quilted fabric, oil paint, beeswax, lace, and fragments of text layered on canvas and wallpaper. Thick, white curved shapes made with oil paint are applied by my fingers and appear in areas of the paintings, while a coating of beeswax gives the quilted fabrics a rippled, shiny texture. My paintings are intensely worked until the surface has crevices and areas that appear both destructive and regenerative.
My work elaborates on one of the fundamental traditions in quilting: reusing, blending, and interlacing bits of fabric to form a new aesthetic object. I hand-stitch some quilts with new fabrics whose colors and textures derive from the rich beauty passed down through centuries of textile design. Other quilts are directly borrowed from history by deconstructing antique quilts. The recycling of old quilts is meant to create something outside of the original object and show that objects change as society evolves. With empathy, I want to give these old quilts an opportunity to be revaluated in new contexts that reflect and intertwine passed traditions, standards, and relationships with modern issues.
You use a wide variety of non-fabric materials in your work, including oil paint and beeswax. What role do these materials play in terms of both technique and symbolic significance?
I have a master’s degree in painting so paint has always been a part of my visual vocabulary. I paint with my fingers in a weaving and layering manner; this is my own painting language which appears in all of my work. Expanding one’s perception of things and altering context has been the goal of my using paint, beeswax, and other materials in my work. For instance, beeswax symbolizes healing, and is applied in its natural, flesh-like color to give the work layers of protective skin.

BodyQuilting Show at the George School

2010-03-06T05:29:00.001-08:00

Friday, February 12, 2010

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: NEWTOWN, PA—Strips of quilted fabric, oil paint, beeswax, lace, and fragments of text layered on canvas and wallpaper form the twenty-two mixed media paintings in BodyQuilting, an exhibit by artist Kari Becker Souders. Currently on display at George School’s Walton Center Gallery, the exhibit will run until March 4, 2010. An exhibit reception will take place on Saturday, February 20, from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. in the gallery.The works seek to draw an analogy between the process of quilting and the ways in which women may alter their own bodies. Most of the paintings contain multicolored strips of quilting, often arranged in vertical or horizontal patterns. Words such as “augmentations,” “plucking,” “lasers,” “peels,” “rhinoplasty,” “face lift,” and “filler” appear in many of the works, printed on sheets of transparent film. Kari explained, “We see our flesh as compartmentalized fragments that can be resurfaced, patched, and transformed into new canvases piece by piece. In essence, we are quilting our bodies with the evolving text of culture and the visual standards of desire.”Through its focus on quilting, the exhibit also seeks to represent the creative traditions of women. “Quilting, a practical and meaningful aesthetic practice, has offered and still provides women with a chance to gather and communicate with each other,” Kari observed. Kari recycled antique quilts by using segments of them in her BodyQuilting compositions. She also hand-sewed original pieces of quilted fabric for the paintings.
Kari has created distinctive textures through her combination of materials. Thick, white curved shapes made with oil paint appear in areas of the paintings, while a coating of beeswax gives the quilted fabrics a rippled, shiny texture. “My paintings are intensely worked until the surface has crevices and areas that appear both destructive and regenerative,” noted Kari. “Beeswax symbolizes healing, and is applied in its natural, flesh-like color that gives the work layers of protective skin.”Kari’s work has been exhibited in galleries and shows in Arnold, Maryland; Haverford, Pennsylvania; Kalamazoo, Michigan; Chicago, Illinios; Cleveland, Ohio; New Haven, Connecticut; Annapolis, Maryland; New York City; and elsewhere. The recipient of a Maryland Federation of Art Merit Award, an Artstravaganza Award from the Hunter Museum of American Art, and a residency fellowship from the Woodstock School of Art, Kari has a BFA from Syracuse University and an MFA from the University of Maryland.BodyQuilting is one of seven exhibitions organized by the George School Arts Department during the 2009-10 year. The Arts Department offers classes in visual and performing arts, including photography, digital imaging, video production, woodworking and design, communication design, painting and drawing, ceramics, stagecraft, theater arts, theater performance, musical theater, dance, vocal and instrumental performance, and music theory, with Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate course options.For more information about the arts at George School, and a complete schedule of exhibitions, visit http://www.georgeschool.org/arts .

New Narratives: Stories and Messages in Contemporary Art

2009-11-13T16:36:00.000-08:00

New Exhibition which Includes my Work:

National all-media juried show

Juror: Peter Bruun, artistic director,Art on Purpose, Baltimore, MD

Nov. 10-Dec. 10, 2009

Cade Center for Fine Arts GalleryAnne Arundel community College

Thursday Nov. 12

12:30 p.m. artists' talk

6-8p.m. reception

Information: 410 777-7028

Betsy Meyer Memorial Exhibition Philadelphia Inquirer Review

2009-11-13T09:11:00.000-08:00

The verdicts are in
By Victoria Donohoe
Philadelphia Inquirer Friday October 30, 2009
What a difference a judge makes. By that, I mean judges of art competitions, not necessarily judges seeking your vote Tuesday.
Julien Robson, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts' contemporary art curator, judged the Betsy Meyer Memorial Exhibit at Main Line Art Center. It's the sixth annual juried show in a series very closely watched by ambitious artists. Robson, a Scot trained in London, came to the Academy in '08 from the Speed Museum in Louisville, Ky.
One clue that venturesome artists once again have flocked to enter this display, enticed also by its unusual single prize of $1,000, is that artists of serious intent from as far away as the Hoboken artists' colony and Bethlehem are rubbing elbows here with fresh local talent. In fact, Karen Steen of Bethlehem won the show's only prize.
The result is a show in which nearly everything on view is worthwhile. Nineteen artists are featured, each showing one to four works. The exhibit has a very "now" look about it.

Betsy Meyer Memorial Exhibition

2009-10-15T05:50:00.000-07:00

Betsy Meyer Memorial Exhibition

Promoting Experimentation and Pushing Boundaries: (10/16/09-11/16/09) at the Main Line Art Center, Haverford, PA

Juror: Julien Robson, Curator of Contemporary Art at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA)

I have two large paintings in this exhibition.

For more information go to:

http://www.mainlineart.org/event_detail.php?id=37

Cultural Memory: Transdiasporic Art Practices Exhibition at the Woman Made Gallery in Chicago

2009-08-31T05:56:00.000-07:00

Chicago, Illinois - Woman Made Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of 'Cultural Memory: Transdiasporic Art Practices,' a group show with art in a variety of media by 23 women.
Juried by artist Pritika Chowdhry, this exhibit includes works of artists from diverse locations and heritages, whose creations embody individual acts of memorialization and remembrance.

The artists in this show have each taken on subject matters that are difficult and perhaps even controversial, but their artistic practices show a critical engagement with their specific material and a commitment to building bridges across cultural and national barriers through the visual arts. The works reveal a broad range of engagements with memory - some are about collective memories of large-scale traumas, some are about familial or generational memories, and others are about individual memories. These acts of remembrance reference and create connections between the geopolitics of India, Korea, Latvia, Sri Lanka, Germany, America, Pakistan, Iran, Japan, and Trinidad, among others.

Participating artists are Nandini Chirimar, Sun H. Choi, Anda Dubinskis, Frances Ferdinands, Karen Frostig, Sharon Harper, Katherine Harriott, Juarez Hawkins, Tehniyet Hussain, Shalalae Jamil, Naomi Kasumi, Susan Lenz, Judith G. Levy, Regina Mamou, Shaghayegh Mazloomi, Samanta Batra Mehta, Neli Ouzounova, Darlene Wesenberg Rzezotarski, Karina Schafer, Romy Scheroder, Pallavi Sharma, and Kari Souders.

The Artist Reception is on September 4 from 6 to 9 p.m., and works will be up through October 10, 2009.
For more information go to:
http://womanmade.org/show.html?type=group&gallery=transdiasporic2009&pic=1

American Style Magazine Advertisement

2009-07-14T10:55:00.000-07:00

My piece titled Minuet I is in the top left corner of this advertisement in American Style magazine. The work was choosen to be fetured and represent the Artists Who Teach organization. It will be on news stands August 25th 2009.

I also have some upcoming events to list:

8/31- 9/30/09, Cultural Memory: Transdiasporic Practices, Women Made Gallery, Chicago.

10/09 Blurred Boundaries: Fabrications Exhibit, Kalamazoo, MI

One person Show 2/4/10 - 3/4/10
BodyQuilting: Walton Gallery, George School, Newtown, PA

Minuet I

2009-05-26T05:21:00.000-07:00

This piece is part of my new Marie Antoinette Series.

This series continues my tradition of juxtaposing the new with the old while commenting on our modern day obsession with physical beauty and its relationship to the past. Words such as (Augmentations, Plucking, Lasers, Peels, Dying, Rhinoplasty, Face Lift, Transplants, Liposuction, Durmabrasions, Lasik Surgeries, Botox Injections, Restyline Filler, Juvedurm) represent the rewriting on the surface of our bodies that has become our modern-day ritual. The work also includes bits of quilts that are composed of bits of cloths and fabrics that elicit the body. We see our flesh as compartmentalized fragments that can be resurfaced, patched and transformed into new canvases piece by piece. In essence, we are quilting our bodies with the evolving text of culture and the visual standards of desire.
The series is an attempt to layer dialogue and mutate fragmented parts in order to experience a montage of past and present, in and out, over and under, until they merge into new realities. They are patched, stitched, quilted and interwoven with both history and current obsessions. They symbolize our woven lives, where past and present coexist.

Spring Garden

2009-04-29T08:14:00.001-07:00

This is an image of my garden. Joy comes from giving pleasure and creating life that sustains the people we love. It is an important creative outlet for me as well as something special I share with my daughter. In early Spring before we sow the seeds we look toward the garden with eyes of hope and the promise of renewal, revival, awakening, rebirth, recharging, recommencement, refilling, reformation, regeneration, rejuvenation, reopening, replenishment, restoration, resumption, resurrection, revitalization.

Piazza San Marco

2009-04-22T07:18:00.000-07:00

This is another example of a two-dimensional surface photograph of an architectural structures that blocks the viewer from any deep visual space.

2009-04-22T07:11:00.000-07:00

I like surface qualities and textures of things like wood, brick and stone. It is interesting finding contrasts between graphic surfaces. I also enjoy photographing two-dimensional surfaces like fronts of architectural structures that block the viewer from any deep visual space. I admire Walker Evans, Arthur Rothstein, Ben Shahn and Dorothea Lange’s pictures that depicted 1930’s American lifestyle. I recommend looking at examples of all of their work especially in today’s political climate.

Via Veneto

2009-02-06T06:08:00.000-08:00

This is a picture I took from a rooftop restaurant in Rome. I was on the edge of the Via Veneto in the very heart of Rome, with the 17th Century Triton fountain sparkling directly below.

This photograph displays the present, while reflecting on art history. I try and
Break down some of the boundaries between painting and photography. My computer-manipulated photographs are similar to a painting in that they are created over time.

The camera photographs an instantaneous fraction of a second. In a painting I move my hand and brush over the canvas in a temporal manner that reflects the movement of my eyes. My photographic process has become more like the process of painting. I use computer technology to piece together a more temporal photograph by continually surveying and manipulating small details.

Recursion One

2009-02-05T19:37:00.000-08:00

Oil and beeswax on canvas

This is an introduction to my work for viewers to see on my new blog. I have included the full painting and a closeup.

I selected Recursion because it shows that painting and computer ideas can have intrinsic parallel universes.

WIKIPEDIA defines Recursion as follows:

Recursion (computer science) is a way of thinking about and solving problems. It is, in fact, recursion one of the central ideas of computer science. [1] Solving a problem using recursion means the solution depends on solutions to smaller instances of the same problem. [2]
"The power of recursion evidently lies in the possibility of defining an infinite set of objects by a finite statement. In the same manner, an infinite number of computations can be described by a finite recursive program, even if this program contains no explicit repetitions." [3]

This painting is about defining one solution form an infinite number of smaller instances.