The STREAM is my third fairy tale! I am really happy that "it was born". Water—and lately, Rivers and Streams in particular—holds great significance for me. I love them dearly, and it is in their presence that I feel most at ease. And now, a few words on how it all came about—how this story was created.
Few years ago, I spontaneously—and without any preparation—told my daughter a fairy tale. It featured stones and a road. That was all I remembered, along with the fact that I had really enjoyed making it up on the spot. Recently, I wanted to recreate it, at least roughly. I began telling it to myself and recording it on a voice recorder. As I started writing it down and adding associations inspired by places I had visited and events I had experienced, I noticed how strangely they overlapped with “the reality” of the fairy tale. I, too, went on a journey while writing it—an inner one. The discoveries I made are still resonating within me.
I decided to use handkerchiefs as the background for painting and embroidering the illustrations. What’s more, I painted them myself. A handkerchief appears several times in the story and is an object of great sentimental value to the fairy-tale heroine—much like pillows are to me. Both were gifts from grandmothers.
Many thanks to my friend Michał Molka for reading the story and for the comments and suggestions that helped me make it more cohesive, deepen it, and bring it to a satisfying conclusion.
Below you can look at few screens of spreads and couple embroidery designs created to illustrate the story, so you can sense a look of it.
It is not shown in the order it appears in the story.
