Pat Owoc
From Provisions
Questions for the Artist
Provisions Library: What early memories or experiences motivated your engagement with social change?
Pat Owoc: I grew up on a western Kansas farm where hard work, independence and interdependence, and self-sufficiency were key. While farms were owned and maintained independently, in times of disaster families pitched in to harvest the crops or till the land of the family hit by misfortune. Respect was especially important, particularly respect for the land. I knew that we humans were temporary, that others had lived before me and others would carry on after my death. My father was a skillful steward of the acres he held. We were temporary holders of the land.
One of the communities in my home county had been settled by African-American families when the land was opened for settlement. I was in 4-H and went to high school with kids from Nicodemus. I know now that discrimination existed in access to services such as restaurants and barber shops in the county seat. My impression then, however, was that we were all "in this together" -- the hail, the heat, the cold, the drought, the crop failures, the vissitudes of farming -- and that all of us in the county were subject to the laws of weather and farming conditions.
It seems to me that this dual experience of respect -- of land and of people -- became the basis for relating to the world. It then makes sense that we must attend to what harms the land and the individuals living on the land.
PL: Who are key influences in your life and why?
PO: I believe that we learn the best "good lessons" from parents and caretakers and that those lessons stay with us. When those early lessons are painful, we may be able to choose to lessen their impact. I hope that I've kept alive the goodness that my parents intended. Those templates "fit" in so many situations.
PL: What books, artworks, films, music, etc. have been essential to you?
PO: I react less to specific stimuli -- perhaps my learning style doesn't encourage retention. I tend to react to the intent rather than the specific. That said, I spent 30 years in education, most of it as a high school counselor and it was the books and classes on child development and counseling that were important.
PL: What are you working on now?
PO: One series of pieces focus on the effect of humans on the land and the changes occurring in the country in which I was raised. Another series is botanical in nature, with the intent that the work be both beautiful and thought-provoking.
PL: How has the art world reacted to the content of your work? Do you feel that your work has been depoliticized/overpoliticized/exoticized/misinterpreted?
PO: My work is not confrontive, but is intended to cause the viewer to consider the human condition and environmental issues.
PL: Terms like "artist" and "activist" are subjective terms. Where do you see the overlap, if any? Do you draw strict separations between the two, or do you see them as inseparable?"
PO: Inseparable -- art, if successful, engages and changes either the artist or the viewer or both. And artistry exists in the deft manipulation of so many mediums -- paint and watercolor and fiber and music and video and dance and prose and poetry come to mind easily -- but my years as a high school counselor included a different type of art, the art of helping another come to terms with events and decisions. Counseling is an art without a visible representation.
About the Artist
"Pat Owoc’s recent work has been of three types – botanical designs using disperse dye on polyester fabric; whimsical pieces, including a number utilizing plastic trash bags; and works reminiscent of the Kansas prairie of her childhood. There is an element of storytelling in most of [her] work.
Owoc creates fiber art from a wide variety of found, discarded, and distressed materials – the cast-offs of modern times. Plastic bags, rusty nails and barbed wire, antique photographs, painted ragged fabrics and polyester fabric, and a variety of surface design techniques are utilized in [her] work."
--Inspiration and Process, St. Louis Chapter, Women's Caucus for Art
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Works from a simple premise: that the tools, models and ideas for building a better future lie all around us. That plenty of people are working on tools for change, but the fields in which they work remain unconnected. That the motive, means and opportunity for profound positive change are already present. That another world is not just possible, it's here. We only need to put the pieces together.
Activists Push Recycling to Fight 'E-Waste'
Source: Copyright 2005, Associated Press
Tons of computers, monitors, televisions and other electronic gizmos that contain hazardous chemicals, or "e-waste," may be poisoning people and ground water. Activists say the nation's biggest environmental problem may be the smallest devices, and this week they're launching campaigns to increase awareness about recycling cell phones, music players, handheld gaming consoles and other electronics.
