The Textile Cuisine

Sometimes things are simply overwhelming... I can only guess that keeping balance for this little hen is quite a challenge. But she keeps her face straight. The amount of dishes is truly impressive. To dive or not to dive? Maybe just looking will do the job? But the water seems so joyful and friendly... So maybe, just maybe, all the troubles will turn out to be manageable? Courage, little hen!

With the sun going higher and the days getting longer gotta look for the signs of spring in the kitchen. Little birds say that "Spring is coming to the kitchen" is my newest kitchen portrait in stitches. It is 46 x 57 cm big and contains all kinds of spring surprises. Fresh milk and eggs with the promise of new life accompanied by colorful morning chorus. Clean plates are blooming and fresh water brings much needed vital energy. First greens appear everywhere slowly taking the kitchen space of. Even the old wooden floor can't resist as if trying to connect with sweet blooming memories... So good to see you back, dear Spring! Make yourself at home and stay as long as you wish.

To inspire you for a good start into a new year I decided to go again into the past. One of the pieces in our exhibition was this long and narrow work of Agnieszka. It is hard to say from this picture what it is. You see the stained glasses, they are the windows from the staircase in one of the apartment houses in our city. The best part is, that each window has an allegorical centerpiece representing important field of the city's life. This one is for Craft (Gewerbe - the signs are in German): Żeby zainspirować Was do dobrego startu w nowy rok postanowiłam jeszcze raz sięgnąć do przeszłości. Jednym z eksponatów na naszej wystawie była ta wąska i długa praca Agnieszki. Nie widać na tym zdjęciu o czym ona jest. Zdjęcia witraży pochodzą z okien klatki schodowej łódzkiej kamienicy. A każde okno poświęcone jest jakiejś ważnej dziedzinie życia ówczesnej Łodzi. To na przykład Rzemiosłu (Gewerbe - napisy są po niemiecku): I made a quilt inspired by Industry: Moja praca inspirowan...

So, the artwork I showed in my last post is exactly what I see outside my window. No więc praca, którą pokazałam w poprzednim poście   to po prostu mój widok z okna.  I guess you may not be aware of the fact that once upon a time Lodz was a textile capitol of Poland. Now it's a history but with many visual proofs - old factories (or just the walls), palaces and villas of their owners, remnants of high quality industrial developments from XIX century. All of them very inspirational. Remember the small piece I used to demonstrate how to frame my works? Oczywiście polscy czytelnicy wiedzą, że Łódź wciąż pełna jest wspaniałych pamiątek po swojej włókienniczej przeszłości. Począwszy od fabryk, starych murów, poprzez rezydencje przemysłowców i ślady wysoko rozwiniętej kultury przemysłowej XIX wieku. Wszystko to razem, bez względu na swój obecny stan - szalenie inspirujące. Pamiętacie choćby to maleństwo na którym demonstrowałam oprawianie prac? This is just a small...

It's really difficult to stay on topic here. I wanted to show you, that my interest and spirals is a bit older than my beet soups. Bardzo tu skaczę po tematach, ale to samo jakoś tak wychodzi. Chciałam Wam pokazać, że moje zainteresowania spiralami są starsze niż botwinka. This piece is over 10 years old and was made for a contest when we had to limit our palettes to 3 colors - black, white and pink/reds. To praca sprzed ponad 10 lat, uszyta na jakiś konkurs, gdzie mieliśmy się ograniczyć do 3 kolorów - czarnego, białego i czerwono/różowych. The whole work is made in a circle and has a wording too... Całość ma kształt koła i troszkę tekstu... ... because it was inspired by Gertrude's Stein famous Rose :) Which reminded me about another old quilt inspired by Czeslaw Miłosz poem (I blogged about it HERE ): ... ponieważ  inspirowałam się słynną Różą Gertrudy Stein :) Co przypomniało mi o innej starej pracy inspirowanej wierszem Czesława Miłosza (pisałam...