Paula Damm
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| Together Voices, 2024 |
Hi Paula, I'm so happy to have this conversation with you. I've been following your work for a little while now, and I am continually amazed at how you seem to keep topping yourself.
Hi, Creatives_having_coffee. Thanks for the invite!!!
I am Paula Damm, and I started calling myself an “artist” about 4-5 years ago. Prior to that, I was a Registered Nurse for forty years (I graduated from nursing school in 1979). The last 21 years were spent in my dream job as a school nurse in a high school. My Cleveland Heights, OH home is my studio and an AIRBNB.
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| Paula Damm: The Artist |
I have always embraced traditional women’s access to creativity, i.e., knitting, needlework, sewing, and, most recently, weaving. After making the millionth woven hand towel, I felt drawn to experimenting with weaving. I was fascinated with hidden messages and how erasure/fracturing doesn’t lessen the message – the message is still there but unreadable. I became familiar with asemic writing (writing that could not be read), and I was off running. This idea of embedded messaging into the weave structure led me to many projects, including a collaborative piece that I did with my sister, which amazingly got into a show in St. Augustine, Florida. I was stunned that I got a piece in a show. I went to the opening and met Tony Williams, an amazing Cleveland artist who had a sweet child’s garment that he made from paper in the show. He invited me to check out Cleveland’s Morgan Conservatory to take classes in papermaking. The rest is history.
I am completely self-taught. Thinking being an artist meant knowing how to draw and paint, I took an oil painting class privately, which confirmed what I thought - this was not my skill set. I decided maybe I should just stick with what I know – which was what I had been doing my whole life. I took all the skills that I have taught myself over my lifetime (weaving, knitting, needlework), added a few new things (papermaking, spinning, dying, working with plaster), and began to experiment. I think that my background brought a unique foundation to the new techniques I was learning about. Additionally, this late career bloom helped me to be fearless and not worried about how things went. It was play, really, that at times turned into something that I liked.
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What do you love about making art?
I love when a new idea emerges into my consciousness. Getting there can be painful and take a long time. My work is generally somewhat complicated, tedious, and time-consuming but also meditative and cathartic when it tells a personal story. I love seeing others work and being inspired.
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| Ghost Dress |
Which mediums do you like working with the most? What are some of the more unusual ones you've used?
I’ll try anything. I love telling my own story through the making, dealing with issues like aging, loss, angst, and trauma. I see things through this lens. My favorite medium is paper, and finding ways to incorporate it into pieces that are unique or edgy.
One work called Vestige involved gathering volunteers so that I could cast their umbilicus (belly buttons) using alginate and plaster. It was meant to denote the sometimes-fraught relationship between mother and child. Art students from the University of Akron’s art department participated. People also volunteered after I sent a call out on Facebook. I went to their homes/schools. It was amazing and sometimes emotional.
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| Vestiges |
Another favorite piece used social media to collect the voices of participants saying the word "TOGETHER" in their preferred language. Sound waves were then embroidered on vintage linen.
What do you love about that?
I love the questions that came up around Vestige. Many student participants surprisingly did not realize that their umbilicus was the mark their birth mother left on their person via the umbilical cord. Some had fraught relationships with their birth mother or had been adopted. I acknowledged the triggers this project could uncover. Obviously, all had a choice whether to participate or not.
With TogetherVoice the finished colorful piece looks like a jubilant chorus. I am so honored to have people participate in this during the pandemic isolation. It was wonderful to have 130 plus participants from across the world including Africa and women in a prison arts program in Italy.
"Sometimes I feel like I am building
an airplane and flying it at the same time."
How do you evaluate your work?
I evaluate the piece personally. I got a lot of strange looks with the vestige project. Some thought it too weird, and intrusive, and didn’t want to participate. That was OK, I knew it was an ask and accepted that but was determined that it was something I wanted/needed to make. It’s especially gratifying that people have demonstrated that they like what I have done through purchasing a piece, getting juried into a show, asking to show, and rarely winning an award.
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| Stream with Code |
Where is your studio, and what is your primary work area?
My studio is every available space in my home! The basement is my paper studio and supply storage, and the first floor, including TV room and bedroom are work/storage areas. The deck and patio provide outdoor areas that give me best light and fresh air.
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| Reading is Resistance: A Tribute to Banned and Challenged Books |
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| The Insidiousness of it All |
What clues or questions do you use to select an idea to invest time and resources?
My work is personal and tells stories of my life. I frame so much around loss, aging, family, and my own struggles with mental health. Sometimes, when scrounging through second-hand stores, vintage shops, and estate sales, I find interesting things and buy them. Examples of this include finding hundreds of library catalog cards in a resale shop for $2. I used them to make Reading is Resistance: A Tribute to Banned and Challenged Books, which won awards. Another is Aunt Edna’s Personal Protective Equipment Against Solar Flares, which was created from 176 hand-woven potholders I found in a resale store in Florida for $14.
About your work: what do you hope people notice the most?
My work is complicated in that most pieces tell a story. Viewers may think the work is attractive, but understanding the story is vital to being able to fully see the piece. I have started integrating QR codes as an actual part of the work and encourage the viewer to scan the code as they view the work. This allows them to more fully participate in the piece.
What is your favorite guilty pleasure?
Ice cream with no guilt. Guilt diminishes pleasure, honey!
How do you define success as a creative? How do you hold yourself accountable?
I try to work every day. Thinking or reading something art related or working with my hands. Success for me is finishing something I like enough so I can share it with others. appreciation from others. Getting into a show is awesome and winning an award is mindblowing – having something purchased is very special.
When do you discuss things with your inner critic?
Always.
What advice do you have about throwing away work?
I usually hang onto stuff because if it was a “fail” it often ends up in something else. If it is a complete bomb I just toss it or burn it and use the ashes in something else.
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| Reworking the Negative |
What would you tell other artists when they get frustrated with a project?
Walk away. I leave stuff hanging around for a long time and often find myself trying to rework things. Sometimes I feel like I am building an airplane and flying it at the same time. I usually have multiple things going on at once and if I am unhappy or stuck I just go to something else. Currently I have at least four things started, and others lined up in my brain as a basic concept.
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Aunt Edna’s Personal Protective Against Solar Flares |
Who are your creative influences, and whose work are you admiring now?
Your work is immensely inspiring for all the layering of components – I love all fiber artists that include paper. Of course Sheila Hicks, Annie Albers, and Louise Bourgeois come to mind first but I also am enthralled with Cecilia Vicuna, and Do Ho Suh’s work with paper.
How can people follow you and your work?
Facebook and Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pauladamm3470/
What would you like people to know that I haven't asked?
My art has a story. I will often use QR codes with most of my work so viewers can hear me explain my inspiration, process, and meaning behind my work. It’s not a ceramic bowl or painting. I foresee this will be a standard in museums in the future.
Thank you for spending some time with me/us, Paula. This has been a blast. I'll never look at my belly button the same way. Please come back whenever you have something to share with the CHC audience!
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| Laid Out |
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