Autumn Walk - Limited Edition of 10 Print

I was born in Krakow, Poland and came to the UK as a child of 7. My adoptive mother was a political activist when Poland was part of the communist block. Due to a tip off she escaped from the country taking my grandmother and me with her, on false passports to evade arrest! I grew up in Birmingham, UK now live in a Bedfordshire village. From an early age nature, texture, pattern and colour fascinated me and led me to start recording what I saw with my camera. I love the creativity of digital photography and how it allows me to manipulate images and combine them with mixed media techniques. My passion for textile art comes from my grandmother who was an accomplished painter and textile artist. I was using needle and thread to create art from a young age. I choose to use mixed media to create art including paint, photographic images, found objects, textiles and threads to combine my two loves, textile art and photography. Photography is a two-dimensional form whilst combining it with other media allows me create depth and texture, thus creating something more three dimensional. I also find using different media an exciting way to express my artistic vision. My work varies and can be abstract or more figurative depending on the subject matter. I've been able to work alongside some wonderful artists, including Judith Rowley a member of the Birmingham Royal Academy of Arts and of Prism, the prestigious Textile Art Group. I am currently being mentored by Ian Andrews who used to be my tutor at art college and is now a full-time artist. I’ve been influenced by a number of artists. Jan Beaney and Jean Littlejohn who were early pioneers of computer photo manipulation in the creation of textile art which led me to explore photo manipulation and printing on fabric. I still follow their work and though my style is very different to theirs I continue to use a number of their techniques for combining different media. Judy Chicago’s work influenced me greatly as well. Her incorporation of media seen as ‘craft’ by the art world such as needlework to create art from a feminine and feminist perspective inspires me to use needlework and embroidery in my own work and to challenge the stereotypes of what is art and what is craft.