Match Girl by Kasia Polkowska

by Kasia Polkowska
(Chicago, IL)

Match Girl, stained glass mosaic on plywood

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.

I've been creating mosaics since 2007. Up till now, I've been working with stained glass. I cut and shape all of the glass needed to create all of the shapes in my mosaics.