The Layers

The idea to create series of prints on Chopin’s music came into my mind after my recent conversation with my Mother when she shared again her life long memory of her Grand Mother, Angelina. I never met Angelina, but I can remember my childhood being filled with stories about Angelina, her ancestors and about the Polish uprising against the Russian Tsar - I believe that it was the January Uprising about 30 years after Chopin’s time.

January Uprising was the longest Lithuanian and Polish uprising against the Russian Empire: it began January 22, 1863, and the last insurgents were not captured until 1865. It started as a spontaneous protest by young Poles against conscription into the Russian Army. The uprising was soon joined by various politicians and high ranking Polish officers from the tsarist army. After the collapse of the uprising, harsh reprisals followed. According to Russian official information 18,672 people were exiled to Siberia.

In my mother’s memories Angelina had only a few possessions that would remind about her “foreign” background. Those included Holy Bible, a very thick cook book in Polish, her love for and collection of amazing indoor plants Oleanders, Hibiscuses, as well as her Polish traditions.

My latest works incorporate metaphors, often of my roots and my place; of what I have left behind and where I am headed off to. Prints or would you call them modified prints made on a view of Wollongong Harbour while listening Chopin and thinking of my Great Grandmother.