Inspiration Series - Part 5

Often times, I find myself drawn to someone's art after hearing their story. This is definitely the case with today's artist, Jackie Moravcik. Jackie is a fellow member of Cleveland Handmade and also the mother of another featured artist, Chris Zielski. Jackie relayed the story of moving into her home and having thieves break in to take her copper pipes. She told of enduring without water. Living in an old house where freezing pipes are something I have dealt with far too often, I felt a kinship to her. I then checked out her art and became a fan. Jackie makes jewelry out of old bottles and is also a fiber artist. I love how she plays with glass and fire but also fabric and color. Besides being artists and mothers, I learned we have lots of other things in common - a love of baseball, Kaffe Fassett, the architecture of trees and dumpster diving. Oh, the treasures you can find on the curb!

Here is Jackie's response to the question, What inspires you?


Ok, it depends on what I'm working on...overall, I am so inspired by nature, color mostly; I love studying colors I see and trying to figure out what they REALLY are...

When I'm making my jewelry,(urbanartifaks.etsy.com) its as if I'm sculpting the pieces. I plan and cut but the glass won't always break the way I want it to...then I stare at each piece until I can 'see' a shape and I start grinding it until bit by bit, the shape emerges.

Each step is individually created; after soldering all the pieces, I again study each one to see if it needs embellishing or just decorative solder.

When I'm working on my quilted fiber art (jacqm.etsy.com), THERE I'm intrigued not only by color, but by the rhythms and patterns that abound everywhere.

I am fascinated and inspired by everything I see...
architecture-the lines and shapes...its fun to pick out the different styles and influences and try to discern exactly what is it that makes it that style...
pottery-the shapes, texture and colors...
trees-have you any idea the multitude of different styles there are, even just of evergreens??? Some branches reach upwards, some downwards; some have long needles, others short bristly ones; some branches grow from the trunk like spokes of a wheel, others alternate....
And my pieces inspired by locations-trying to distill an area to its essence and then stitch just enough detail to be recognizable...

And then I'm inspired by junk...I like to shop curbside and see what I can find. Two summers ago I found an old metal headboard and I want to use it as a garden fence. I've a collection of wooden chairs I'm going to paint bright colors to hang on my patio wall-(after I finish my patio)--and use as plant holders-I saw that at a restaurant in Tremont, I think, and it was really cool...I've pulled some really neat things out of the trash and with a bit of paint-or not, I can't wait to repurpose them into usable furniture or art.

"There are 2 main inspirations/influences I've had to my work. The first is my all time favorite artist/designer, Kaffe Fassett-his books on needlework, quilting, interior design are all about color and patterns and design and his books are filled with fantastic photos of his inspirations--whether flowers or brick patterns or Islamic tiles or dhurrie rugs or Victoria and Albert Museum kitsch. My favorite quote from him is, why use 1 red when you can use 40??? or something like that, and that pretty much defines my use of color. I was excited to hear him lecture a couple times, and I also had the thrill of meeting him (and feeding him) for a couple days when he was in to film a segment for a needlework show we filmed when I worked at Beachwood Studios.

The second inspiration was when I discovered a closeout book on the Watts Towers in LA...what Simon Rodia, a small immigrant Italian man, did all by himself creating a fairyland of broken china, bottles, tiles, and anything else he could find to mix with concrete and this started me on my fascination with the magical-ness of creating with STUFF that has stayed with me ever since."

Thanks so much for sharing Jackie!