a pendant

I got from my father a pendant a few month ago. He had found it in a clinic. I was really happy for the present, because it was very symbolic and characteristic for my father. I remember from my childhood that he was always bringing to home some buttons, stones, pieces of jewelry, sometimes even money, found somewhere on the street. I was wearing the pendant as a present from my father more precious then anything he could bought even for big money.
Unfortunately, the pendant didn’t stay with me for a long time. I lost it a few days ago. If a thing can have a destiny, probably the destiny of it was to pass form ones hands to the others.

Szpieg z Krainy Deszczowców

This is a real treasure among graffiti. Let me introduce you to the Spy from the Rain Peoples Country – a hero of children’s tale. He was following The Wawel Dragon who had set off on a rescue expedition with help to professor Baltazar Gąbka. I forgot about existing all those heroes, so to find this picture it was nice surprise for me.

smiling oval

When I was trying to find The Museum of Modern Art it was raining very hard. It was cold, dark, wet… I almost surrounded, when I saw the building. I got in and went to café to have some tea firstly. Then I bought a ticket and started to look for something interesting for me. In second room I saw a picture of Jean Miro with a smile especially for me in it. There was an white oval, like a head, with a smile. Background was brown with black lines symbolizing a corner of a room. It was beautifully balance for this terrible weather, like a bicycle in the picture taken on a street in San Francisco. Beautiful, but it is a pity for me that I can’t understand an inscription.

It was my first day in San Francisco

A hotel in which a conference was held seemed to be a very good place for such event, but when I awoke in the first morning I was depressed. It was like an island between highways, far far away from the real world I like so much. During a coffee brake I broke through roads and car parks in direction could be promising. In the end I stud on a bank of Bay and I was observing aircrafts.

goodbye to Paris

A taxi driver who drove me to the airport was listening some African music, when I got in to the car. He immediately turned it off and started to look for something which, in his opinion, could be better for me. Probably I don’t look like a person who can accept such kind of music early morning… I didn’t tell him that the music was very nice for me, because I’m definitely a person who hates contacts with anybody early morning. Fortunately, because of terrible interference, he finally decided to get back to his music. This African tune was still ringing in my ears when I was traversing airport’s corridors. A magic goodbye to Paris…

St. Martha

My favourites showpiece in The Museum of Moyen Age is a sculpture of St. Martha and repetants (or donors?) from the end of 15th century. Marhta is carrying a bucket in her left hand. She has her head wrapped with a headscarf. She wears a beautifully draped dress. Her face and all folds of cloth are carved very precisely. By her right side there are figures of people, kneeing and praying. They look as if they were ghosts or figures made of fog. Their heads and faces are only sketched, eyes are presented by small holes drilled in faces. The way of showing the contrast between figures of different significance enraptured me.

Again in Paris

I’m here again only for a moment. The city is like always. I file as if I’ve never went out of it, but only as if I haven’t been in favourites places for a long time. In the few moments of spare time I have, I look at windows of Parisian tenements and observe people drinking coffee and reading newspapers in cafes. One time in a radio I heard a description of the city done by Czesław Miłosz. It was Paris. I guessed, not knowing where he was living as an emigrant. He was able to convey atmosphere of the city – everything what I like and dislike in Paris.

My dentist said that I look like Olga Tokarczuk who is a writer. This comparison amused me, because it was very simple association: my hair is as short as hers and I like similar clothes as she wears. It was funny but I didn’t ignore this remark. The same taste in small things might mean closeness in more serious things. Seating on the dentists chair I said to myself that it is highest time to read her book. I heard a lot good opinion about her writing, more over this year she got a very important literary prize. When I was going home from the dentist I bought the rewarded book Bieguni. This the book about travelling. It is really for me, isn’t it? I travel a lot and I really don’t know what made me tired more: being on the way or waiting for another travel.
In the photo: travelling – Iceland.

instead of...

When I have to do something in the city after my work, usually going home I have to change my bus on the stop near dormitories of Technical University. I noticed a long time ago, that there is a small graffiti there. This is a picture of a girl with red flower in her dark hair. Below there is a rose with a drop of blood dripping from its thorn. I have never made a picture of it because of not enough light for making photo. I will do it one day, but at the moment we must be satisfied with a photo of the same graffiti without the rose. This is a stop of tram number 14.

Ash tree

A few days ago came to me my secondary school friend. We meet each other rarely. She comes to me usually once a year when she needs to stay in Kraków for a night or two. She always brings me some gifts. This year it was tea form China and a book. I’m creasy about tea so it was very good present for me, but the book was event better. It is hardly difficult to find good science fiction book. A lot of them are real rubbish. This one was read by my friend who likes this kind of literature and who knows very well my preferences. It was a very good choice for me. This is a very complicated story about a man who was sent to a fantastic world. His mission was of course to save this world. The man is a kind of heroes I like very much. I was reading the book with real pleasure, but I was ashamed a bit by the book. There is a very important motif of ash tree in the book. It is very moving and sad moment. I order to imagine this scene well I needed a picture of a ash tree, but I didn’t know how it looks like… Now I know – I checked it in the Internet and even found a real tree which you can see in the picture. This is the ash tree near the Ark church in Kraków.

A necklece

No, I wasn’t bored during that meeting in our office, I only couldn’t concentrate on the conversation. The woman who was our guest was wearing a necklace made of black, white and silver (plane and patterned) cubes. I tried to guess the scheme in which the cubes were arranged. The black one after one, two and three others? And which scheme with the others? Was those silver cubes treated as one kind regardless of being patterned or not? I almost guessed the scheme for a few times, but it have never been the proper scheme. Probably there was not at all and cubes were arranged accidentally… doesn’t matter. It is nice to have a moment of relax during your working day, isn’t it? Like with a small chapel in the picture above. I see it every day from a transparent lift shaft. It gives me a moment of being away of the cares of daily life.

industrial - Roman

The meeting was held in a new building of the organisation which was our host. It was a kind of aula… what a terrible place… it looked like a shop floor or storehouse in some horrible factory. Around us was a lot of concrete elements of the construction and air-conditioning. Such kind of industrial architecture is very similar to The Museum of Modern Art in Paris. I like it very much, but in this case it hasn’t its charm and beauty. Beauty is beauty after all… for example this Roman bridge in Cordoba. Very nice, isn’t it?

The Mesquta

I have already been in The Mesquta. I don’t remember a lot from that time. Only a forest of columns and my thoughts about the price we must pay for ours decisions. Now I would like to keep in my memory also an orange’s garden, pavements made of small stones completed in mosaics and a mascaron – a dog or maybe a devil on one of decorative bars in the Cathedral.

Watra

This is Watra. She is very smart and faithful dog. Most of her time she spends sitting on a part of stairs in front of the house of her master. She looks then like a lion on sculptured lion.

Wetlina

Wetlina 1 - 5 September 2008

Równia

This time my stay in the Bieszczady Mountains was connected with my work. I was on a project workshop there. It was difficult for me to accept all obligation and responsibilities. All those views and smells of clean air I associate with freedom and rest. It was of course some nice things besides work. For example I could see again the orthodox church in Równia, which I consider as the most beautiful between wooden churches of this region.

a desk in Prowincja Café

There is an innovation in Prowincja Café. Of course apple cake and cappuccino are good as always. The same thing is with waiters – nice and friendly like Amelia in the movie about Amelia. Fortunately owners of the Café removed white tables from summer garden and exchanged them for old, antique school’s desks. People smile to each other seeing that. They like to seat there and have some coffee. I even observe a lady who explained to her young son, for what there was a hole in a table of the desk (a bottle of ink) and gutter (for a pen).

gobblin, gnome... ?

One day I went for a walk to the mountains to Dwernik Kamień. A path was leading via forest. It was hard way, all the time up and up. After two hours I was very tired. Suddenly I saw a forest gnome, or other kind of monster. It had a body of a tree and orange eyes. Before I get afraid, I said to myself that it couldn’t be real and it mast be a problem with my mind because of tiredness. But it was real – as you can see it was a tree with some signs made by foresters.

Ajzik

I went for a walk with my dog. Suddenly he groaned and started to limp. I was worried by that. My dog is old and he had two operations on his knees some years ago. I was expecting many complications. I was even afraid that this time he could not survive from it. I took him to home, gave him some goodies, I hugged him. He was a bit surprised at my tenderness but accepted it with a joy and didn’t care about his leg. In the evening he recovered.

it was a chair I think...

Newcastle 9 – 13 June 2008
This is a roof of a discotheque. Behind it there is a gallery, around a very nice square. I didn’t notice the chair at first time, but it seems to me the most interesting – I could see it only from my window.

bench

In the photo: a shop window in Venice. It shows how different might look a bench, with a young couple in love and old, probably married couple. The shop window reminded me a story from a train to Warsaw. An old lady said that passing time makes stops in trains higher and higher. People waiting for stopping a train stared to laugh at her joke about loosing fitness because of age. One passenger said to her that he has force to keep steps in the same size like last year just by helping her with her luggage. She accepted the offer with charm and gratitude. On the platform she said that indeed steps were not higher then last year thanks to him.

Bridge over Wetlinka river

During a mountain trip we stopped for a moment on a small bridge over the Wetlinka stream. I noticed a wasp holding a piece of leaf. I didn’t know that it is possible for a wasp to collect things like for example leafs. But definitely the wasp took it to its burrow. The burrow was, I suppose, in the railing of the bridge. The wasp tried to go in though a hole in rusty weld. It tried many times without any effect because the leaf was to heavy, but finally it succeeded and disappeared in the railing.

from behind

There was a big crowd in Venice. I remember only tourists. From the perspective of time it was very good decision to take a gondola ride. It cost a lot of money but for 5 people the price was acceptable (especially after long negotiations)… It was nice and gave a possibility to see a bit of real Venice – for tourists but from behind.

Venice glass

To have it? No, this is not good idea for me. But I love shop windows in Venice with all those plates, beads and earrings.

a citizen of Padova

After long day of trip we went to a restaurant in Padua a bit too early. The door was open but staff was surprised seeing guests at half past six. We could observe how the restaurant was preparing to another evening – like in the film I Served the King of England. The main hero of the film was like an actor playing in a spectacle. The same was with those waiters in the restaurant.
In the photo: a citizen of Padua. You can meet such pictures almost everywhere.

Newcastle - detail

I couldn’t take a photo in the gallery... so an architectural detail in Newcastle… Please see the picture of the sculpture in a guide of Exhibition “Love”

Marc Quinn (born 1964)
Kiss
Love Laing Art Gallery

An angel and a scull…

I found that angel when I was going from a train station to a hotel in Venice. It is an extraordinary welcome, isn’t it? An angel and a scull… probably it refers to traditional warnings placed on electric devices. There was the first surprising thing in that day. Second happened to me in the hotel. W took a shower, after I had came there. At one point I found a bottle of shampoo on the bottom of shower cubicle. It had been left by the previous occupant of that room. A chambermaid didn’t notice that because it was possible only from inside of the cubicle. I used soap form the bottle. It was for me like a wink to that person – like saying hello.

Rose made out of crêpe paper

In the Polish Peoples Republic for Labour Day there were prepared flowers made out of crêpe paper. After collapsing of the Polish Peoples Republic the tradition celebrating the Labour Day vanished. I was thinking that with the Labour Day also disappeared the tradition of making flowers made out of crêpe paper, so I was really surprised when I saw a crêpe paper rose. It was in Bieszczady mountains in an art gallery. To be honest that was not only one rose… there was a lot of such roses in different colors. They are smaller and more precise then those from behind the time. What more, they are registered as a local product. An artist, someone who can make beautiful things from nothing, saved this technique in such a beautiful way.

fish

In the Museum of Modern Art in Newcastle I so a book about graffiti. In the book there were only pictures, not any analysis of the art. I was disappointed… I have also a lot of graffiti in my collection…but even for me it is not enough only to make pictures.
In the picture: Fish somewhere in Aarhus.

owl and ruins

The Alnwick Castle was very surprising for me. It is unbelievable mix of styles and artistic forms. There was something beautiful and interesting in every chamber but generally I felt like being in some big lumber room. For example in old beautiful library besides many shelves of books there was big plasma TV and two prepared dogs. In this unbelievable mess, as the most interesting thing, I found very small mascot of owl which was hidden behind a leaf of acanthi.
It was put there in order to attract children visiting the Castle. In every room there was such mascot somewhere. Children have to find it, and thanks to that game they pay more attention to the exhibition.
In the photo: I didn’t like inhabited castle, probably because I generally like much more mysterious places. That’s why I preferred the Holly Island with its monastery in ruins.

museum was closed

No favorites showpiece… “Pokemons” (Yoshitomo Nara) - could be interesting I think… but come to late to The Baltic Centre for Contemprorary Art in Newcastle...

Angels from Łopienka

Dog in Caryńskie

For the first walking tour this year we chose the path to the students shelter in Caryńskie. It is only about an hour and a half of walk by forest road. In the shelter, we were resting under an apple tree and we were observing a local dog. It was a young, black German Shehard.
When the dog noticed us, he approached us and showed that, in his opinion, not to pet him would be a gaffe. We petted him immediately. After that, he brought a twig and started to bit it. A few times he barked at some imaginable animals for us and probably very real for him. His owner, who was repairing a dilapidated car, gave him some chances for running by throwing the twig. The dog was running after the twig, then he was looking for it and running back. He was very disappointed when the owner would stopped being in the game anymore. It was very hard for him but when he accepted it, he would start to bitting his twig again.
In the photo: a picture in the orthodox church in Łopienka.

the cros and the cros

In Edinborough, I of course found some time for searching for my favorite showpiece. This time I chose a bronze figure of Christ from a 13th Century crucifix. In that time, it was probably attached to a wooden cross. Today, the medieval very simplified sculpture, looked very modern on a white, plastic replacement. It remained me a figure from one of Cracovian museums. It was made later, probably at the end of the 15th century. It is much more naturalistic. Every detail was made very precisely. Even the back side, directed at the cross (when the cross had existed). So many faces of art… I like it.

...snails

Going to work I usually a pass small public garden next to the Academy of Mining and Metallurgy. Lately some modern sculptures appeared in the garden. Generally, I would say that they are terrible. They look like crazy erotic imagination of snails. They are tasteless to be honest. One of them is named "Transformation". This title meant for me nothing till the moment when some vandal damaged the sculpture a bit. In the part of this abstract snail, where the head appeared that it should be a head, the vandal painted a schematic nose, eyes and a smile. Thanks to that, the snail transformed to hearty character of a funny fairy tale.

somewhere in Edinbourgh

Tower

Airports this is waiting, eating artificial food and milling around duty free shops. But sometimes you can see something interesting, like for example this tower in Edinburgh.

Wenecja

Today I went to a doctor. I hate it. It make me nervous and dependant. To rose me spirit I went to sushi bar for lunch. Award was doubled. Eating my favorite nigiri I could observe interesting scene. At the next table there were sitting a girl and her father. The girl was talking all the time about some toys she got as an extras for some shopping. For about half an hour her father said nothing. He was only waving his had for “yes” or for “not”. When she finished her story silence hung over the table. The girl was mixing tea with her chopsticks, the father was reading menu again and again… What a nice day together…
In the photo: macaron at Wenecja Street.

in the morning in Bangor

Bangor? Beautiful place. That’s it.

An ugly angel

Presentation were starting at 9 and finishing at 6 during Riga conference. I had no time for visiting the town. The photo was taken during one hour long brake, the only one I had. I had small walk then. I found for example the most ugly angel I ever seen. I’m happy to have him in my angels collection.

I seen a sunrise from a plain.

When we reach an airport it was still dark. After take off I was observing empty surfaces covered by snow. Here and there were I saw small groups of lights – small estates.
Few minutes later we flew into light. Probably we reached the sunrise sooner then it is usually on the land. The spell was broken…

The Vikings boat

It was unbelievably cold. We went firstly to the cathedral then to see the sculpture of the boats of Vikings. Nothing more the essence of Reykjavik.

butterfly

Colorful butterflies on Reykjavik wall.

teardrop

I was looking for my favorite piece of art in The Museum of Modern Art in Reykjavik. I went to the exhibition hall. It was on the ground level. In the right side there was a few big windows reaching from the ground to the top of the building. I was being encouraged to go outside by them. It looked like an open surface, but of course it was not open – there was a glass in windows… glass with drops of rain on it… I found a plate with an inscription: “Harpa Arnadottir. They hang on the heavenly hooks (the tears). I stand for a while under a roof of rain.”
My first impression was that it is about those windows… but it was strange… it is not a roof… then I sow it: a pane with a drops of rain above me! The cottectoion between inside and outside of a museum, between the museum and the exhibition, the tears of rain and the tears in my soul…

Asvallagata

Asvallagata – we were missed there many times. We knew the name of the street and how looked a house and a fence. The name of the street become a vulgar word in jokes: “och, the weather is so windy today, asvallagata!!!”

in my room

Girls went to a kitchen to make tea. They left the doors open. Going to a bathroom I noticed a cat paying them a visit. Them? The cat live in the house, we were guests… He only controlled his own window…

more eyes

an eye

angel

Another angel to my collection. The pictures was made in the cathedral in Aarhus.

a dog and...

In the picture: I suppose his is a dog with a man and a woman. I took the pictures in Aarhus in the morning when I was going to for a meeting. I could see it from my window in a hotel, but in to big distance to take a photo.