Moments are Sacred

Moments make up our lives. There is a Polish song by DZEM. It states that moments are the only thing that are beautiful in life. I agree. But also, I think that moments are little segments of a saga that we call life. When sewn up together they make up the memory of our lives. What we felt, did and saw. Today, I checked my Facebook account and found a suggested memory from two years back. And there we were, the three musketeers, mama, tata and Olo. I shared it after writing: "Momenty sa swiete. Male momenty takie ulegle i delikatne. Mijaja. Choc na zawsze kochane zostaja, nidgy nie wracaja. Szanujmy, kochajmy momenty!" I translate: "Moments are sacred. Little moments are so delicate. They pass. And although they are loved forever, they never come back. Let's respect, love our moments."

I think I got influenced by the Polish radio today. I listened to a little segment about Polish actors. That got me thinking about Polish poets. One of them was a Nobel Literary Prize winner, Wieslawa Szymborska. She wrote, "Nothing can ever happen twice. In consequence, the sorry fact is that we arrive here impoverished and live without the chance to practice." I feel so lucky to be able to ready her poems in her native language! However ,this translation by Stanislaw Baranczak and Clare Cavanagh are not so shabby!  

I will celebrate my birthday this weekend so maybe that also had something to do with the fact that I started contemplation on how fleeting live is. So I decide to celebrate my moments. Every single one of them! This attitude can only cure every unhappy thought and every depressed feeling. 

My Hairdresser, 2017

Oh and yes! I wanted to tell you that I have finally and happily finished another portrait. I finished it last night and this morning already, I sold it! Yay! No congratulations though. It was commissioned by the client and the subject of the painting. However, when I was delivering the finished product I got a new client! Yay and yay! I am so lucky! What an amazing moment!

I have to go to sleep now. I wish you all only happy and rewarding moments tomorrow.  Remember they are sacred!

Summer Vacay So Far

I have been so quiet for the last couple of days. I have to admit that our balcony looks and feels so amazing ever since my husband cleaned it up and we got patio furniture. We have gorgeous plants and bokchoy all around, a new bamboo mat to cover the street view, and of course, the chairs and tables! I love it so much that I eat all three meals out on the balcony every day! And I have my coffee there whenever I can! Our neighbours must think that we just moved in because for the last three years there was no life on the balcony and now, all of a sudden all this commotion! I am loving it! Hence, every evening I have my glass of wine there and then I start to paint. I have no time for the blog:( My apologies. But there is a new painting coming soon. You will be the first one to see. I promise!

Summer vacation has been giving me a lot of work out as well. In the first two weeks I took my son to his swimming lessons in the mornings and then, in the afternoons, we attended dance classes. Sometimes I would get a bit of time to meet up with my lovely friends for lunch or a beer or two. These meets are highly prescribed to be repeated soon! For all of our sanity's sake!

Then, on the weekend we visited a BBQ at E.coli - and - bikini - rich Woodbine beach and Edwards Botanical Garden in North york. It was fabulous! Also, on Monday we have had a play day with Da Cousins from Aurora. Finally today we had mommy and son date at Royal Ontario Museum. Creme de la Creme! The best date ever! It has been decided! My love for that place has not diminished! I want a family membership pass for my birthday! Visiting any museum with my son is always a bit hurried, nevertheless inspiring and stimulating. However, I think it will be so much better and much more educating if we can go to that museum anytime we want and visit only one room at a time.

Have I mentioned that Royal Ontario Museum was the first place to which my husband and I went together? Yes, yes! I invited him to accompany me while I completed my research for one of my Archaeology assignments. Both, the date and the research went well as you can see! Twenty years later we are still together and I graduated from York U!

And this week there was an anniversary of Billy Holiday's death! I love her and her music. This lady sang the blues like no other! She has changed forever jazz and blues! Rest in peace

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4P0hG3sD0-E

Happy Wednesday tomorrow my friends! I am taking my glass of wine to the balcony. And then, back to work on the portrait that I was commissioned to paint. I haven't been given a due date but I know I have to do it within this week. So I might be quiet for another few days. HUgs and Kisses!

Vignettes from a Vinegary Busy Week

I walked on Eglinton Avenue yesterday. I was relaxed and calm. I walked towards my moms home smiling to "passer - bys" and thinking disconnected thoughts. I passed all kinds of people. Good looking, successful looking, teenage looking and stressed looking people. A healthy mix of temperaments. Then, from far away I saw an older woman with very long, silvery - blond hair. I thought, " My lady, you have a very nice set of hair!" It was a very loud thought! I slowly walked closer and closer towards her. As I got next to her, I noticed that she was looking right at me. She smiled back and nodded as if saying ,"yes! Yes I do!" in accord to my thought. I loved that moment.

Fire, Misato, Japan. December 2004

Today. I found myself very late at Pape Subway station. As I reached the top of stairs I noticed a women on my right. She was waiting for the station elevator.  She looked very familiar but I couldn't tell you where from. It will bother me for the longest time! Her had perfectly arranged, dark, short spiky hair, as if she was a hairdresser. She had a mid size suitcase that was most likely too heavy to carry on the stairs. At some point she turned away from the elevator and noticed me looking at her. At that same time our gaze-off was cut buy a crowd of  people. "Where do I know you from? If you know me you will keep looking at me." I passed  the wall of crowds and she was still looking at me! I knew her! Where did I know her from? It will really bother me. I cannot stand when I don't remember people. I love to remember every person that crossed my way! If not by name, then, by the situation or a place we have met.

Where do I know her from? Gosh! Don't you hate that!?

Summertime Contemplations

I had a wonderful lunch with a friend today. She made me realise something I have always known but somehow lost it in my noisy head and a busy heart for a while. The importance of staying sane. The importance of doing so with a little help of nature. It makes me extremely happy when I get away. I submerge myself with nature and the visual stimulation it provides for my senses. Every little detail, even something that seems very insignificant and small brings so much amazement. The picture below is one of my attempts at drawing reflections on water. I used to love trying my hand at sketching them. But before putting a pencil to paper I would sit there for hours and study. Maybe not even study, just admire and contemplate on every little detail that reflects with such perfection in a calm, steady water! I would hug every shape with my eyes, scan every colour, light and shade. I would analyse every detail carefully. There is something zen about it. It  relaxes and slows down the mind. Try. It is a great meditation.

I wonder why I chose purple for the dead trees. I read it somewhere that purple symbolises something magical, powerful and mysterious. A secret, something unexplained. It makes me wonder! I float away in contemplation...I need to get away from the city soon!

Papa Paolo Giovanni II

On April 2nd 2005, two weeks before my wedding day, Papa Giovanni Paolo II died. He was the ultimate Polish icon, hero and authority. And now he is our saint, protector and defender. I remember watching his funeral on TV. I remember how at the end of the mass pages in the bible on his coffin started flipping in the wind. At the end, the back cover flipped over and closed the book. As if this was a sign for all of us that our Papa's book has ended but we should not fear because the same wind of change keeps blowing and it will bring what is written in all of our books.

I drew this portrait especially for my one and only mama. She is so good and so faithful to principles of goodness and honestly that sometimes when I think about it I shed a tear. I am so proud to be her daughter and so happy that she was my mom. I wish I could be to be half the person and a mother she is! I am grateful for her immensely.

This portrait survived a huge fire in 2010, when my mom lived in a downtown. The fire was caused by a a spark a few floors down from her but spread all over this 30 floors high building. Many people lost their homes and their things. At the time of the fire my mom had to stay on the balcony of her 24th floor apartment for six hours while the fire department did what they do best. It was the longest, most threatening period of her life. In the aftermath of the tragedy lot of residents, such as my mom, were forced to life in hotels without clothes, documents, person items. Also, as a result of it a lot of my mom's belonging were announced by the Fire Department to be unsafe to keep due to toxicity. Luckily, this little drawing survived and still is in my mom's possession to this day. 

Papa Giovanni Paolo Secondo, somehow it has a better ring in Italian than in English for me. I always refer to him in this way.

Happy Tuesday, friends! 

Saved a Little Life Today

Today I save a little life! I am so happy with myself that I didn't quit! It is the worst thing that you can do to see something happening and think that it is ok to walk away, to think that it is insignificant enough to ignore and go about your business.

Colouring Pages, 2016

Today after the swimming pool I dropped my son off at home and decided I needed to go to the bank. I normally take just a card, my phone and a key. This time I picked up my little back pack and closed the door behind me. I happily walked toward the end of my street and breathed a refreshing evening air of the East York. I turned onto Pape Avenue and walked south. But from the corner I noticed a very small, young squirrel running under a car parked on the side of that busy street. From time to time it would run out in between car breaks but then it would move back to the sidewalk. But there were people so this little thing was trapped. I was so afraid that finally in desperation this little baby would run out on the street and get hit by a car! I got closer to it and began to scare it off towards the side walk. At one point I looked at the two gentlemen sitting in front of the hairdresser shop. They kept watching as if this was a movie. I wondered weather they thought I was a hero or a crazy lady running after this animal. "But never mind", I thought. "I have to keep going with this." I looked up and around to the rooftops. There She was. The mother was looking carefully at it all in despair. Poor little mommy! Now I couldn't quit! No way!

I went around the parked car and with my backpack started waving the little squirrel off the road towards the houses. I had to find a way to get it climb back to it's mother. I managed to get her come to the wall but it was too weak to climb. I wanted to give her a push with my bag but she dropped onto it and turned looking at me. I got scared and squeaked. It ran away from me but stayed by the wall. Then, eureka! It finally got my point. In a break between two buildings there was a little fence with a hole cut out for a pipe. The baby squirrel slowly went into it with a help of my bag pushing it gently. Yes! I did it. Now the mother would be able to come down and get it. Such a precious little thing should not die under a car like a thrown away empty coca-cola cup!!

Colouring pages, 2016

When I was coming back from the bank, a few minutes later, the two gents sitting there pointed to the mother up on the roof. She was looking right at me. The two men said, "The mother, the mother. She is worried". I replied, "Yes, she looks very scared! We All are worried about our children, aren't we!" I hope when things come down on the street she will be able to come down and get her baby to climb back to safety. I will be thinking about this all night. I hope I did the right thing.

Cook, Eat and Be Marry!

Today I would like to say, "what is going on with people!" They don't eat this, they don't eat that, allergic to this, that and the other!!!  And on top of that we don't cook at home anymore! Have we lost the sense of what makes a house a real home? Have we forgotten how it was when we walked in and all over the home you could smell your mom's or your dad's cooking??? Have we? Or have we lost the pleasure of having that piece of pie or szarlotka that your mother baked on Friday night? Don't we know anymore what brings us pleasure and satisfaction??

Home made sushi with miso soup.

I really have a big problem with that, mainly because very soon our children will not know that it is actually possible to produce a meal at home!! Some years ago I bought some corn for popping and brought it home. A very good friend of mine asked what it was and got simply blown away when I told her that this was my future pop corn. She had absolutely no idea that one could make pop corn at home!! At that time I didn't know that this "not knowing" could go further with the future generations. I am scared and frustrated. I want to bring home cooking to our homes!! It is the stuff life is made off! Home cooking and family meals together! A family that eats together, stays together!! At least once in a while, on weekends! Please show your kids what you were able to experience! Give them that memory of freshly baked pie on weekends or home baked chicken with potatoes and gravy, better yet, fried fish or schnitzel! Let them know that it is totally doable to make french fries at home! Even if it is just a salad! Chop it up in your kitchen with your children!! How else will they know? If you need any recipes give me a shout. I will be more than happy to talk about it!

Japanese fried chicken (karage), home baked bread, strawberry cheesecake

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orkxSBs1AU8
Pierogi-making party, Chichibu, Japan 2013

When I was small my mom would make pierogi, kopytka or spaghetti any day of the week. She would produce these amazing dishes out of almost nothing! Nothing processed, all from scratch and highly seasonal! Life was good. She used to make this most amazing fried fish with mashed potatoes, and cabbage and carrot surowka (salad). Or in summers when both of my parents went mushroom picking in forests, she would fry these huge mushrooms that looked and tasted like steaks when fried in egg and breadcrumbs. They were called kania. And it was the best when topped with a dessert of home made vanilla ice cream or kisiel ( thick but still runny starchy fruit dessert. May I mention that it was highly good for your nails and hair, and contained some vitamin C from the fruit!) Who remembers today!!? My father, on the other hand was the expert in frying hamburg steaks, kotlety, served with perfectly smooth mashed potatoes and surowka (cucumbers sliced with onions and sour cream as a dressing). And his pea soup was known in the entire universe! As thick as mud but as good as chocolate! A typical army soup that kept you going and full of energy for hours!  And let's not forget home made wine and spirits that people of that time in Poland made behind tightly closed curtains! This was me as a child. I grew up with this. I intend to give every little bit of that back to my son. I always tell him " Food brings pleasure. Try everything at least once. It will make you happy!" I tell it only to the closest, nicest people that cross my path;)

Homemade paczki (doughnuts), szarlotka (apple pie) on the table after dinner with a special guests from Canada. From the right: mamusia, me, my middle brother, wujek Bogus, and daddy. The good old times at home.

Live a long life and keep cooking my friends! Even if it takes a bottle of wine! That is what life is about! Keep the passion going! Hugs!

So here it is!

After years of shying away and trying, I have finally made my son's portrait. I was so hesitant for the longest time but last night finally I worked up some courage to finish what was started the week before. Ever since he was born I couldn't capture his features and the brightness of his face. Until last night. With some help of a glass of good wine I finally did it. I am not 100% sure about but here it is! Possibly the relaxing Canada Day long weekend activities gave me the motivation. Happy 150 of Canada and eternity of Aboriginal Land! Let's not forget this land's true owners!

I started with a little sketch on parchment paper. I have a plan to work with that separately. I am thinking about doing some ink work on it. 

This is my baby giving my husband and I a 30 minute-long explanation of something that happened in Minecraft world he enjoys so much creating.