Match Girl, stained glass mosaic on plywood, 40" x 30", 2011 available for purchase
I just completed this mosaic for an upcoming show "Match Girl: a Body of Work by Kasia Polkowska" The exhibit is at the CMS Gallery @ the Chicago Mosaic School running from May 31st till July 27th.
The mosaic is based on an image I painted a few years back while studying at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. My original painting depicted the imaginary spaces I thought up while reading Hans Christian Andersen's "The Little Match Girl" - one of the most memorable fairy tales from my childhood.
In the upper left hand corner (inside a room, among the apartment buildings) my mother is reading the story to me and my two sisters. As she approaches the sad ending - an ending I've heard before - I leap out of the room landing in the story. Though I am too late; all that is left of the little girl is a shadow surrounded by light, as her soul ascends to heaven.
