Cowango Studios is the home for two hardworking artists (who just happen to be married), Stefanie Graves and David Lucht. Stefanie paints the watercolors. David does the batik. We are both dedicated to improving our lives and surprising ourselves through the visual arts.
Aritst's Statement: Batik's origins lie in fabric design, so it participates in the world of craft where the object is meant to contribute a sense of grace and beauty to peoples lives. I try to bring forward that tradition of elevating the commonplace and utilitarian object, using it as a support for the imagery I develop to show batik's potential as a fine art.
In batik the image and the cloth become a fully integrated thing. There is no surface decoration in batik. The image is established in the fiber of the cloth. I find that to be a very powerful idea.
Batik painting presents many challenges for me and the sense of exploration and adventure engage me as I pursue the skills required for its mastery. But batik has also offered some surprising solutions. It created an escape valve which allowed me to access different areas of image making which I never considered using traditional painting media. These new freedoms and restraints now provide the place where my personal style can develop.
Coming out of the world of craft, batik appeals to me in so many ways: as communal, as beauty in the utilitarian, as an anti-elitist alternative. Batik is undiscovered territory. It has magical qualities of obscurity and revelation. The finished work is only seen in its entirety at the very end of the process, when the wax is removed and the image revealed.
In batik the image and the cloth become a fully integrated thing. There is no surface decoration in batik. The image is established in the fiber of the cloth. I find that to be a very powerful idea.
Batik painting presents many challenges for me and the sense of exploration and adventure engage me as I pursue the skills required for its mastery. But batik has also offered some surprising solutions. It created an escape valve which allowed me to access different areas of image making which I never considered using traditional painting media. These new freedoms and restraints now provide the place where my personal style can develop.
Coming out of the world of craft, batik appeals to me in so many ways: as communal, as beauty in the utilitarian, as an anti-elitist alternative. Batik is undiscovered territory. It has magical qualities of obscurity and revelation. The finished work is only seen in its entirety at the very end of the process, when the wax is removed and the image revealed.
Location: Paducah, Kentucky, USA
Brick and mortar:
Cowango Studios
517 N 8th Street
Paducah, Kentucky 42001
517 N 8th Street
Paducah, Kentucky 42001
270-908-0755
(open the second Saturday of each month and by calling ahead)
(open the second Saturday of each month and by calling ahead)
Blog: Life in the Hyphen
Languages spoken: English, Spanish
"The Darndest Thing", Batik by David Lucht
Tags: batik, painting, silk, fine art, contemporary realism, world batik
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“Drive a nail home and clinch it so faithfully that you can wake up in the night and think of your work with satisfaction,- a work at which you would not be ashamed to invoke the Muse”
-Henry David Thoreau
In our case, it would be the needle or other fiber tool. Drive it home! And, we all thank you for your words, left here to these good folks. Invoke your Muse!