Unravel, Ravel, Revel, Reveal

Sara Ulfsparre

Interview by C. VanWinkle

December 10, 2022

Will you please describe the prompt that you responded to? 

It was a black and white photograph, maybe two photographs superimposed onto each other. One was a palm of a hand, and behind it or through it, it looked like there were roofs of two buildings. One building had a cross standing on top of it. That's what I saw, but it was quite hard to tell because it was black and white and blurry, the two pictures merging together. 

I thought of two worlds, two realities, merging. And the building with the cross made me think of a mausoleum or a burial ground. The hand was a protective symbol. Death, dreams, other worlds, that kind of thing. 

I like that! So how did you get started with your piece? 

Well, I've never been to art school, so I never had a prompt to do anything with. I just make, you know? I have kind of an obsession-compulsion to make, and I just make. So I thought, “I’m gonna do it like a ‘real’ artist would! So I must get to work.” I wrote down lots of words and thoughts about the picture. Because I lost someone the week before I received the prompt, I thought about death and the mausoleum and grief. It influenced me, anyway.

I make soft sculptures mainly, so it was always a given that I was going to make some sort of soft sculpture. I thought of grief, basically. And soft sculptures are soft and you can touch them and hug them. 

So I wrote down stages of what I thought was “This is how you make it” in my sketchbook. Because the picture’s black and white, I figured I’d do something in black and white. I had some black fake velvet and some white cotton and thought I’d just do one piece with different sides. Then I started on it and thought, “Nope.” It just didn't work! It was, you know, trying to do something. Like I was trying to be an artist. 

I think I know what you mean. I have the problem of always needing a plan. I want to learn to let go of that and not always try to do something so specific. My friend who is an art teacher tells me to ‘think with my hands.’

Ooh, I like that! Yeah, when I make something, it's intuitive and I get obsessed about things. That's how I make. It was just too rigid, I guess, too intellectual. I think that's what it was. So… stop that. I had a day of “Ahhhh, what am I gonna do? I can’t, I'm not an artist!” 

“I’m a fraud and everyone’s gonna find out!”

Yeah, exactly. I went back to the photograph and wrote a few more things. There are always words in my sketchbook. It doesn't make sense, though; it's not a story or anything. I wrote some stuff, took out some words, wrote sentences, took out more words, mixed those words together, made another sentence. Some of those words were to do with touch and connecting, and the blurred bit of the photograph, and comfort. It’s not solid, if that makes sense.

I thought I’d make a hand. When I make, I get sort of obsessed with certain shapes, and hands are a recurring thing in my practice as well. So that felt rather comfortable to me. I’d make a soft sculpture hand, which I’d never done before. Like a big one. Or the size of the piece of fabric I had. [laughs] I just made in the same way I always make. The outcome will come through the process. I was thinking about the things that the prompt reminded me of, and it linked to what I’d written in my sketchbook. That's what I do. 

One of my current obsessions has been reading about the three Fates in Norse and Greek mythology. They’re the female deities that shape the course of human destiny. One myth is that they spin the thread of life. One of them will measure it out; that’s the length of your destiny. And one will cut it. I thought of the thread of course because I was sewing, and that brought to mind “unravel” and “ravel.” But I wondered what “ravel” even means because English isn't my first language. I’d never heard the word “ravel.” And then I thought of the wordplay, how you change one letter in “ravel” and it becomes “revel,” and then it becomes “reveal.” So I just stitched those words on the fingers.

Those words are really interesting. At first, I was only thinking about them metaphorically, but then after a moment I remembered that this thing is sewn together, which made the text even more significant. It was also fun because you took the A out of “ravel” and replaced it with an E to make “revel,” and then to make “reveal,” you just put that A back in. It's all so orderly! 

Of course, I didn't sit down and intellectually plan it out like that. That's not how my brain works. After I stitched those words on, I ran out of time. But I thought, “No, it's probably done now.”

How does this piece relate to the rest of your work?

The stitched words I use a little bit. And it's the soft sculpture bit, the fabric, and the sewing. It's not realistic; it’s the symbol of a hand. 

I thought it was interesting that you started with one thing, you decided it wasn't working, and you started over. Is that also a pretty regular practice for you?  

It happens sometimes. Not always. Usually, I try to think with my hands. You know, I just make and one thing leads to another thing. The text in my sketchbook leads to something I'm sewing. Maybe it was supposed to be a pillow but it became a key or something. It leads me to something because of the things I’m obsessed about at the moment. Whatever I'm thinking about is going to come out, consciously or subconsciously. 

This hand looks like it's holding up the number four. Is the number four significant to you?

No. [laughs] Confession! Three is, I guess, but three wasn’t going to work here because I couldn't take one of the words away. Also, the thumb didn't look like a thumb. I don't make realistic work, but I still thought the thumb wasn't that good. Then I ran out of time to fix the thumb, and I thought, “Well, if I just put it like that, then you can’t really tell.” [both laugh] 

That's true! 

Now it looks more like a thumb, and the fingers are more prominent so you can see the words, as well. So yeah, it was unplanned.

Thank you for that confession. 

I knew the piece would just work itself out in the end. 

I also noticed that the palm of the hand has some detail on it, some lines. Are you familiar with palmistry? Are those lines significant or was it just to add detail?

Those lines came before the words. That was when I was just hoping to make it look like a hand. I was stitching, and then I thought, “Oh no,” so I was gonna undo them. But I just left them in. They’re all right. And then when I thought of the words, I decided that was better.

Ah, I see. Mythology yes, palmistry no. It sounds like this has been a good exercise for you! 

It's been a great experience, even though I had my hair-pulling incident in the beginning. I think this experience made me trust my process. Don't try and do it in an intellectual way because, you know, someone else is gonna judge it. Just do it the way you want to do it. 

See, that’s just what I've been concentrating on lately. I’m going in with no real plan and figuring it out as I go. I’m looking for opportunities to practice deliberately not being deliberate.

That's great. I mean, you know that you can always bin it! That’s what I thought. If this hand didn’t work out, I still had a couple of days left to do something else. And so that made me made me trust my process in the end.

So what advice would you give someone else doing this?

Don't think too hard. Don't think too much of the outcome. Just focus on the process, whatever the process is for you. And have fun with it! It’s a fun project. I love it.

Call Number: C86VA | C88VA.ulUnra

Sara Ulfsparre is a UK-based artist working in many mediums, such as drawing, painting, soft sculpture, needle felting, stitching, and mixed media. Mainly self-taught, and with a heavily process-led art practice, Sara spends her time in the studio somewhat obsessively pre-occupied with making mysterious and playful shapes. You can connect with her Instagram @saraulfsparre