I'm a winner baby!

Today I received some very good news in my inbox.
I am the WIINNER of the Das Monk Design Competition!
The theme this year was "The Flipside". Here is my winning entry, or you can see the result on their tshirt here. I'm super excited to become part of their Artist Collective. Very cool!!

February Tasteof Poland Recipe - Paczki (Doughnuts)

Ingredients:
500g plain flour
100 g butter, melted
5 egg yolks
5g yeast
1 cup warm milk
100g sugar
vanilla essence
pinch of salt
250g plum butter or marmalade
750g lard for deep frying
icing sugar

1. Prepare the dough by combining fresh yeast with a warm cup of milk. Mix together until the yeast dissolves and set aside. In the mean time, combine egg yolks with butter, add a pinch of salt to bring out the yellow in the yolks. You can whisk them together until creamy.

2. Slowly combine flour, egg yolks and the yeast and milk mixture in a bowl. Add the melted butter towards the end. Use your hands to form a smooth dough.  Cover with a damp cloth and set aside to rise. The dough should double in size, this can take up to 2 hours.

3. Remove the dough from the bowl, kneading and beating it for a few minutes and return to bowl to rise again.

4. Lightly dust your surface and use a rolling pin to flatted the dough until it is about 2 cm thick. Use a glass or round cookie cutter to cut rounds in the dough. Place a spoon of plum butter on one round and cover it with a second round. Pinch all the sides together and re-cut with the glass to make a perfect round. Do this with all of the dough until there is nothing left.

5. Heat the lard in a large skillet. You can also use oil. Test the temperature by dropping a little piece of dough in the oil, if it browns and floats to the top, the oil is ready. Place doughnuts gently onto the oil, bulky side down. Fry for a few minutes until one side is golden brown. Gently flip over and fry the other side. Remove from oil and place on paper towels to drain excess lard.

6. Dust with icing sugar, and enjoy these scrumptious treats!!

Happy New Year + January Taste of Poland Recipe: Salatka Jarzynowa (Vegetable Salad)

Dear Friends!

Wishing you all a very happy and amazing 2012! I have a feeling it is going to be a good one! Because of all the festivities, I'm slightly late posting the very first recipe from my Taste of Poland calendar which I launched last November at the Polish Festival at Federation Square. My apologies, here we go:

3 carrots, boiled
3 potatoes, boiled
3 eggs, boiled
3 apples
1 onion
3 pickles
1 can of peas
1/2 jar of good quality mayonnaise
salt and pepper
extra egg and vegetables for decoration
 
The proportions here are just an estimate - depends how much salad you want to make! Boil the carrots, potatoes and eggs (separately) and set aside to cool. You can prepare these a day earlier if you don't want to wait around for them to cool down. Once cool, dice the carrots, potatoes, eggs, apples, pickles and onion into cubes. I prefer mine quite small, but they should be less than 1cm. Drain the peas and place all ingredients in a large bowl. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste and mix everything to gether. Lastly, add the mayonnaise until it covers the ingredients when mixed together. In my family we like to use S&W Whole Egg Mayonnaise. But I have to confess... I hate mayonnaise, and my lovely mum always has put aside a small bowl just for me...with no mayo! It tastes just as delicious, I think :) Lastly, place the salad in a nice glass bowl and decorate the top with egg halves, capsicum and/or pickles.

Enjoy! And PS. If you still want to purchase a Taste of Poland 2012 Calendar, please email me, as I have a small number of limited edition copies left!

Maja

A Taste of Poland 2012 Calendar

I can't believe it but it's almost the end of the year! I've always wanted to design and create a calendar, so this year I actually got myself organised and put together the 'Taste of Poland 2012 Calendar'

It was a mammoth task in a VERY tight time frame but I'm very proud to present 12 illustrations of some of Poland's most famous and favourite dishes - one for each month!
The months, days of the week as well as the names of the Polish dishes are listed both in Polish and English - the perfect way to learn some cool new Polish words. Watch this blog each month next year to follow the recipes of delicious dishes such as Paczki (Doughnuts), Pierogi (Dumplings) and Ogorki (Pickles).

Please join me this Sunday November 20th at Federation Square, Melbourne for the annual Polish Festival where my gorgeous Calendar will be launched and available for purchase. It's a really fun day out and you can taste some of the Polish Dishes featured in the Calendar.

My stall is positioned right off Swanston Street at Fed Square, just opposite the Visitor Centre. Please come and say hello and pick up a few Taste of Poland 2012 Calendars - perfect as Christmas gifts!

Wishing you all an amazing year next year.

Maja

Secret Project!

I'm working on a secret project. I'm really excited, because this project has dragged me out of a creative rut and re-inspired me in so many ways! I can't reveal exactly what it is just yet, but it does involve wrapping new wheels in my illustrations. I've got two separate designs going at the moment, each is quite different from the other, but I just wanted to share this one sketch with you. This sleek peacock pyramid came to mind when I recently had cocktails with my girlfriends at the Emerald Peacock Lounge on Lonsdale Street, Melbourne. Such a gorgeous, glamorous place, I drew a connection with this feeling, the peacock and the project I'm working on. But more on that later... enjoy!

Illustration Friday - Launch

Frog Illustration by Maja Wolnik

I've been hiding under a rock. For a long time. Kind of like a frog, waiting for something to happen. I'm not sure why, maybe it was the empty well in my brain after my very successful solo exhibition, maybe its been a bunch of life things I've had going on or maybe I've just been too lazy or scared to create... but I've definitely been very blocked! I'm not sure if I'm out of the woods yet, but new illustrations that I've been doing for a new client have gotten me VERY inspired... all things kiddy and cute. So, very fittingly for this week's Illustration Friday theme, I'm LAUNCHING myself into creativity once again, with a giant leap of faith! So watch out world:)

Exhibition Euphoria @ Off the Kerb Gallery

Over a week ago (oh how the time flies!) I was back at Off the Kerb Gallery to pack up my Echoes of Nature exhibition. To my delight, I found the gallery covered with red dots, and almost half of my work SOLD!!!

It was a huge leap from humble beginnings on opening night, the evening of February 4th, when Melbourne decided to descend into humid and wet chaos, with flash flooding turning our roads into rivers. Seriously! I could not have picked a worse night for an exhibition opening.  But, those who love art, family and friends (who love me) braved the weather Gods and made it in time for refreshing (and very affordable) drinks, beautiful artwork (if I do say so myself) and interesting chats with the artists.

I could not be happier with the final outcome of this exhibition. The grin on my face could not be wiped for days.

I will miss my little babies... I'm kind of sad that all those months of hard work and preparation are over, there is a feeling of emptiness after the euphoria, but knowing that other people are enjoying my art in their homes and offices is absolutely priceless.

Creatively yours,

Maja Wolnik

Illustration Friday - Reverse

This week's IF topic is Reverse... so I had to take this opportunity to showcase a piece of mine that is currently on show at Off the Kerb Gallery.  Titled Mysterious, it is an ink illustration that has been inverted by using a photocopier. This way, the colours and the image have come out in reverse. It is one of the main techniques that I have used in this body of work.

Mysterious by Maja Wolnik, mixed media print, 2010

Please see my blog posts below for further information about this work and show. 

Enjoy!

Maja

Exhibition Fever!

For the last week, especially in the last two days I've had Exhibition Fever. I've been so busy stressing about my upcoming show at Off the Kerb Gallery on Friday that I can hardly sleep or eat, let alone do any other tasks that need attention like grocery shopping or the laundry.

But I love it! Part of the Exhibition Fever involved the local media who came by my studio last week to take happy snaps of me and my work. I'm thrilled to be featured in the Maribyrnong Leader and the Maribyrnong Weekly. Check out the articles here and here.

Now, I've also spent a very long day at the Gallery setting up. Being an artist doesn't prepare you for the amount of mathematics you need to know to work out how to hang your work evenly! Not to mention special balancing skills required for the ladder to hammer nails in the wall. 

Lucky for me the lovely Shini (founder/director) was there to curate and help with her extensive gallery experience. She saved my life with a strong cup of freshly brewed coffee, and we spent the whole day together chatting about all things art related (whilst measuring, hanging, re-measuring, re-hanging). 

We also had the pleasure of her two gorgeous cats keeping us company during our breaks in the cute gallery courtyard.

Exhibition Fever is taking its toll on me but I can't wait to see it all come together! I'm looking forward to the opening night, where I will also get to see the work of Elodie Silberstein in the back gallery and Monika Jean Dziewialtkowski-Gintowt in the upstairs gallery. It's going to be a fun night!
Join me on Friday February 4th, 6pm-9pm at Off the Kerb Gallery, 66B Johnston Street, Collingwood.

Echoes of Nature: Solo Exhibition at Off the Kerb Gallery : Friday Feb 4th 6pm-9pm

Please join me at Off the Kerb Gallery, 66B Johnston St, Collingwood. Opening night Friday February 4th from 6-9pm. Exhibition runs from Feb 4-25. Gallery opening hours are Thurs & Fri 12:30pm-6pm, Sat & Sun 12-5pm.

Echoes of nature is a collection of playful, intricate works inspired by the patterns created in nature. This body of work stemmed from drawings I made during a month long stay at the Julia & David White Artists’ Colony in Costa Rica in 2009. Crumpled, dying leaves captured my attention and then my imagination to re-create something original.

  I like to use ink to draw my illustrations: I can make distinct, solid lines yet still create a sense of flow and movement. 

  I’m fascinated with repetition: I love making copies, and copies of copies…they’re never really quite identical. The photocopier is an important element of my creative process – it allows me to make quick copies of my work, but also to enlarge, reduce, crop, reverse and modify my images in countless ways.

  Collage then takes me back to that childhood feeling of joy and playfulness: I cut things up, add bits, take away, move things around, stick them down and then add even more ink. Guided by intuition, this method allows me to re-construct the natural forms to create new, yet similar images that echo each other. 

  As I explore the endless possibilities of creation, I hope to evoke a feeling, a memory or reaction and inspire you to stop, reflect and appreciate. The final arrangement allows the eyes to play.

Please join me at Off the Kerb Gallery, 66B Johnston St, Collingwood for the opening night on Friday February 4th from 6-9pm.

Linden Postcard Show : Saturday February 5th 1pm-5pm

Linden Postcard Show, Linden Centre for Contemporary Arts, 26 Acland Street, St Kilda. Opening day Saturday February 5th 1pm. Exhibition open from Feb 5th to March 26th. Gallery hours 1pm - 5pm Tuesday - Friday, 11am-5pm Sat & Sun.

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Linden Postcard Show, but I've made 2011 my first ever entry!

Featuring small scale works in all mediums from thousands of artists, the annual Linden Postcard Show is the wealthiest open entry competition in Australia. With a plethora of prizes such as the $5000 Linden Award,  $2,000 Palais Theatre Management Artist Support Award , $1,000 Yarra Trams Award, $1,000 St Kilda Art Supplies Award and the chance for 6 Postcard winners to each receive $250 and have their work reproduced as Linden Postcards, I couldn't let this amazing opportunity slip by. I've entered three of my most recent monoprints for judging.

 

Opening celebrations start from 1pm on Saturday 5th February with bar and live music. Please join me at the Linden Centre and wish me luck!

Wishing you a happy, healthy, creative New Year!

Just a quick hello to wish everyone a Happy New Year! To kick off 2011, I've been very busy in the studio working towards preparing for my very first solo exhibition, which will be happening in February at Off the Kerb Gallery - but more on that later! Here is my new studio helper, Zuzia, the ragdoll cat, adding her thoughts (and fur) to a new collage composition. I'm really excited about 2011 - lots of fun and creative things coming up in this Melbourne town and I'm ready to get my hands dirty. Watch out for my newsletter coming to your inbox soon! Creatively, Maja

What's your neighbourhood like?

Last Thursday night my partner Marc and I decided to get out-and-about and we headed towards funky Collingwood, where the Design Files together with Lamington Drive Editions were launching their Neighbourhoods Calendar.

It was great to see some creative people about and gorgeous illustrations of some of Melbourne's neighbourhoods by talented illustrators Kat Macleod, Kat Chadwick, Beci Orpin, James Gulliver Hancock, Good Wives and Warriors, Pauline Matthewman, Rik Lee, Jane Reiseger, Marcela Restrepo, Madeleine Stamer, Neryl Walker and Webuyyourkids.

One gallery wall featured a beautiful illustration by Kat Chadwick of Melbourne and its surrounding suburbs. The gallery visitors were asked to decorate a flag and spike it on the map, pointing out which 'hood they belong to.

I also spotted limited edition prints by Kat Macleod, who's work I truly admire. Her beautiful illustrations captured my heart many years ago.

I think the calendar is a great idea, and it even includes a cute illustration of our new hood- Yarraville- by Jane Reiseger, so I had to buy one for myself of course! What a wonderful way to (re)discover Melbourne in 2011.

Reflections after the VCA Graduate Certificate Exhibition

So, just over two weeks ago in the midst of moving house and collecting large shipments of my stuff from Canada at Melbourne docks, I somehow managed to finish up at VCA and graduate!

This is how it all began - painstakingly blowing up my mini illustrations through a projector into large-scale ink drawings.

I simply have to express my excitement and the thrill of actually creating these works! I absolutely love the whole process and am extremely happy with the outcome. And I'm not done yet!



Four of my pieces, which I have called Repetitive Nature made it to the prominent spot of the Graduate Exhibition, upon entry. They are mixed media collages of my drawings combined with ink on paper. I'm very proud of the work I have accomplished this semester, sad and excited simultaneously to finish up. I will miss the dirty corridors (smeared with creativity) of the VCA, but am grateful for the experience and invaluable things I have learned. Especially, that the art must go on - and constraints only make it better!

Below are some photos from the highly successful exhibition, which was opened by Kate Daw and Jon Cattapan and curated by our lecturers Tony Garifalakis, John Meade and Nadine Christensen. The exhibition featured the work of all the post grad students who graduated with me: Maria Simonelli, Michael Fromhotlz, Carolyn Mc Lennan, Mary Baker, Judith Firkin, Garry Norish, Michelle Payne, Michelle Collivas, Alison Kennedy, Catherine Dale, Jeff Kosew, Chui Lee Yap, Namaryta Muss, Jenni Parsons, Claire Welsh, Annie Enez, Stella, Minh Phan, Carol Swain, Traicee Evison-Griffith and Katarina Widderington-Oliver.

Well done and good luck to everyone!

- Maja Wolnik
art : illustration : design

Photos courtesy of Kasia Wolnik and Michael Fromhotlz.

Printmaking update

Sorry I've been VERY slack with my blog lately, but ironically, this is a good sign because I have been actually VERY productive making art (and not documenting it).

Life at VCA is keeping me very busy... tonight I am presenting my body of work to the class so I'm excited to hear their feedback and reactions. But more on that later.

Today, I'll give you an update on what's been happening in my Printmaking Elective. It appears that I've gone abstract, and have been using my copper plates to create mono prints instead of etchings and aquatints.

But, I'm loving my happy accidents and experiments. Here are two examples of the kind of images I've been producing: I'm actually using a very small plate (5cm x 15cm) to create my images, adding or removing ink as I see fit. In the first image I inked up the whole plate with a roller and then used an old phone book to smudge the ink and remove some sections. I really like the tones that I'm getting from this effect.

The second image was created similarly, but this time I used a spatula (normally reserved for tradesmen who fix up holes in walls) to spread the ink around and create this ribbon effect.

I'm having a problem with the ink smudging onto the paper beyond the plate - you can see it at the bottom or top where the print is supposed to end. I think this is because the plate is so small, when I place the heavy press blanket onto the paper, the slightest movement can sometimes affect. It's very frustrating because these are mono prints - one offs! I can't just go and re-print another one, each is unique and original. So what to do? Well, in the next few weeks I think I will try to move to a bigger plate and see what happens. It will be a bit easier to work with anyway.

That's it from me for now. Please let me know what you think of the prints?

Creatively yours,
Maja

Back into the thick of it...

So.... where do I begin? For starters, I'm back in Australia, in the marvelous city of Melbourne. I've thrown myself into the thick of it straight away, by going back to university to finish my postgraduate studies, almost the moment I got back.

I am attending the Victorian College of the Arts and Music and am having a wonderful time! Critical and theoretical (art history) class is keeping me busy writing essays, but I'm having the most fun in my printmaking elective as well as developing my work in my Contemporary Art Practice tutorial. Luckily, I have one lecturer, Tony, who was teaching me three years ago and he remembers my previous work... it was so great to show him how far I've come in the last few years!
As an example, here is some of the work I was doing in 2007... I found these in my old 'studio' - my parents house which is a bit of a storage right now!


I created maybe 7 of these repetitive black and white paintings... I'm still reflecting on them, but I guess i was trying to express the idea that there is no black & white in this world, just shades of gray, and I was trying to create some sort of order out of this.

It was pointed out to me that there is a comparison between these to the work I did in Costa Rica with the leaf forms. Here is a new one I have just completed. What do you think? There is definitely that repetition and black and white streak happening...

I'm going to keep going with these and see where they take me. I'm loving the abstract forms in them, and hope to develop this further through collage and print making. I'll keep you posted on my progress.

In other news, I'm inspired by the buzz of Melbourne - I've only been back for three weeks and I was able to attend the huge Melbourne Art Fair at the beautiful Royal Exhibition Building in Carlton. My head was spinning as my lovely mum and I got to trawl through two levels of art with over 900 artists represented by 80 national and international galleries.

Later in the week I was summoned by my friend Kat, amazing designer of Live Like Kat boutique jewellery, who was showcasing at the Life In Style exhibition at Flemington Racecourse. This boutique trade event featured over 300 selected exhibitors featuring homeware, giftware, lifestyle and kids products. I could not believe the talent and energy in the rooms, such amazing creations in one hub - I was so inspired by everything that I was madly jotting my own ideas when I got home!

And now, I'm off to do more ink drawings and essay writing. I wonder what Melbourne will bring me next - hopefully less rain!

Please note my etsy shop will be down until some time in October as I wait for all my belongings and art to arrive by ship from Vancouver. Thanks for waiting!

Creatively yours,

Maja
www.majawolnik.com

Red Hot Red Dot - The Cheaper Show No 9

Oh what a night!

Last night, Cheaper Show No 9 was a huge blast!! When I arrived not long after 6pm, there was a line up outside West Cordova Street all the way down the block... I just couldn't believe it!

Inside, hundreds of people were rushing to buy art at the very affordable price tag of $200 - there were red dots everywhere. I'm really proud to say that I got a red dot too! Thank-you, whoever you are, for purchasing Aging Gracefully 2.

It was simply an incredible night, loaded with energy and so many people coming out to look at the amazing artwork that was on display. All the art showcased was so different and interesting, my friends and I spent hours going over and over again all the pieces.

I'm so thrilled to have been a part of something so huge and to be able to gain such exposure.

Thank-you to all the people who made the Cheaper Show 9 happen, thank-you to my boyfriend Marc-Andre for his continued support, and my friends Sarah, Alex and Leo who came along and cheered me on. And thank-you to all the people of Vancouver who came out to support artists and especially those who purchased the art.

I wish I could do it all again... it was such a fun night!! Here are some more photos from the evening.

Follow my heART!
Maja
majawolnik.esty.com

Exhibition Photos

So, the rain Gods decided to be fickle on Sunday at Arts Off Main, where I was exhibiting my work.

Unfortunately it was a dark, grey and miserable sort of day, with rain spitting ever so often. Because it was outside, I had to keep taking my artwork down so it wouldn't get ruined and putting it up again when the rain disappeared.

Luckily, my wonderful boyfriend Marc-Andre was on hand to help me out and keep my spirits up! He was working hard to get the crowds (if only!) to walk down the boulevard and take a look at my work.

All in all, it was worth a try, we had fun and I got two leads from it!