3d painting

This is the only artsy activity I managed to do this summer with Friboy. I wanted to do more clay masks from different cultures but he wasn’t into it that much. We made this one which is inspired by Romanian dance masks related to winter / end of the year traditions.

Continue reading

Saint Lucia a beautiful and tasty Swedish tradition

Tomorrow, the 13th of December, people in Scandinavia and in other parts of the world (Italy, Croatia) celebrate Saint Lucia. I particularly like the Swedish tradition observed on this day and I decided to honor it with an illustrated interpretation and by baking the delicious Swedish Lussekatt, a sweet saffron bun served on this occasion.

Continue reading

On the steps of Saint Nicholas

I still have one of the toys that Saint Nicholas left in my boots when I was a child, it’s a mother gorilla stuffed toy holding a baby gorilla in her arms. I had named her Uga because at that time I thought she looked like the daughter of Ugo Fantozzi, an Italian series my mother was watching on TV. I gave it to Friboy a while ago and told him that it was from Saint Nicholas, he was shocked because he doesn’t picture me as a child. I am his mom, I couldn’t have been a smaller person that believed in magic and waited impatiently for Saint Nicholas just like him. He never reacted like this when I showed him photos of me as a child, this gorilla made me that little girl in his eyes.

Continue reading

Ritual food offerings – Mucenici

I don’t know why I felt compulsed to illustrate this recipe. I grew up having mucenici [mûtʃeniːʃɪ], every year for the 9th of March and still bake them here in Switzerland.  So it’s nothing special, unless maybe you’re not used to the idea of food offering because that’s what they are, an ancient relic of a pre-christian celebration of time renewal and the beginning of a new year for a pastoral population that kept a tight grip on its magical patterns of thought.

Continue reading

Shadow Box Art Installation

Last year the Romanian Embassy invited me to exhibit my woodwork at their HQ for the International Day of the Romanian Blouse, celebrated on the 24th of June.  The space was limited to a small table which was a challenge for me, because I had no clue how to squeeze cultural identity in 1 m, without making it look and feel stereotypical and idealized to the audience.

Continue reading

Rullion is back with a vengeance

When I was a child, the beginning of March was always a magical and highly expected time of the year, partly because I never liked January and February. After the euphoria of December, they seemed to me like a perpetual Monday. March was the promise of good weather, Martisor  [Mərtsishor] (a talisman exchanged by people on the 1st of March in celebration of spring and the renewal of time) and the days of Baba Dochia [Dokia].

Continue reading