Vanda

Mixed media photographic collage on cradled wood panel.

23x36x2"

In 1925, my great-grandfather wrote my great-grandmother a letter. My great-grandmother begged him to go home. He escaped during WWI and sacrificed so much. She had not seen Poland since she was a child. Poland was a sovereign state for the first time in 150 years. They could return, live the life they wanted, she said. But, the letter revealed he could not make the money to pay for a family of five, soon to be six, to make the journey. Besides, he told her, men would never stand for a free Poland. Just over a decade later, Poland’s Second Republic ended when the Germans invaded, launching us into WWII.

Twelve hundred years earlier, legends speak of Princess Vanda of Kraków who held off a similar invasion the Germans with her sheer beauty. In defeat, the German shouted: Vanda mari! Vanda terrae! Aeri Vanda imperet Vanda rules over the sea. Vanda rules over the earth. Vanda rules over the air) Women always stood for a free Poland.

I reworked the classic masculine Polish eagle to reveal Vanda as the sovereign Polish identity.