About My Technique

MEDIUM

PRINTMAKING and QUILTING
To communicate about women's experiences, I have developed a technique that combines printmaking with quilting. Quilting is an emblematic feminine activity, in which layers of fabric are held together by stitchery in forms that are extravagantly intricate, sensuous, embellished, strong and yet yielding. I chose quilting in combination with printmaking as a main medium of expression for Portrait of a Woman series to bridge fine arts and the tradition of women's crafts. Historically, quilting was an accepted form of social outlet for women. At gatherings of quilting bees, they shared their stories, documented their lives artistically in the form of quilted patterns, and provided coverings for their families and the community.

I print my images–be they linocuts or derived digitally–on paper or fabric and stitch together with several layers of different fabrics. I use stitching as a drawing method that communicates. For instance, blood-red sewing machine tracks echo the look of the military tank tracks that invaded my city at the onset of Martial Law in Poland, and obliterate the images beneath them. Similarly, the hand-sewn shoe prints trample the face of the iconic beggar woman.

I juxtapose unlikely textures and fabrics, such as shiny and elegant white silk with thorn cheesecloth in salmon color, crossing an emblematic crying face. To intensify the effect of drama, I use dies that significantly alter the originally printed image and add metal or wooden elements, which are attached and embedded into the paper or fabric. I often integrate image with text, using calligraphy, or wooden and digital type.

Recently, I begun to make relief prints in perma stone. I explore the possibilities of this method by applying to it color inks, pigments, and wax.

updated September, 2006

DRAWING & FORM

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I use both compositional and figurative dramatizations to communicate emotional tension. I draw the female body so as to signify feminine identities that have been devoured, depreciated, gutless, and nearly annihilated, but all together compelling and recealing their peculiar beauty. The iconic forms of female bodies bridge ancient forms of representation with their modern reinterpretations. I frequently juxtapose titles with images to convey the continuous tension between the actuality and human goals and ideals, and the struggle to retain the sense of self in our violent and turbulent world.

At the formal level, I am interested in semantic entailments resulting from scaling, multiplication, and texture. For instance, the impact of the same image can be altered, depending on how it is realized: printed on a flat piece of paper and framed, or relieved in plaster and wildly colored, or largely magnified and brought to life in animations.