Client: Anonymous

Overview

Anna Skibska Technique, Glass 15x112x16 inch (each) 2022, a private commission at a modern home in the USA.

The client request was to create something that would correspond with a long wall in the private part of their residence – architectonic, I said.
I presented two preliminary drawings, and my clients selected the one based on a story of the mythological Greek prince Theseus, subsequently king of Athens. His journeys, exploits, and friends have provided material for fiction throughout the ages. Theseus’s stories fascinated my newlywed clients and myself.
Their interest in these tales also allowed them to bridge memories of their Mediterranean honeymoon journey and their admiration for the ancient culture of the area.
Forgotten Sail artistically interprets the story of Theseus’s victorious return from Crete to Athens and embraces my clients’ architectural / decorative / emotional aesthetic. The two parts of my sculpture, A Mythical Boat and Its Shadow, float in the air, traverse time (even without the sail), catch light, and cast shadows, thus marrying the myth of Theseus and my clients’ memories of their beautiful honeymoon vacation journey.

Goals

The most banal but true explanation is: it was my most recent project. I remember it vividly, more vividly than my other projects.

BUT…

Forgotten Sail has been special - “holistic”, I would say - from the very beginning.

The clients were interested in this story. So was I. We loved the culture and mythology of the Mediterranean Sea and were intoned to it. We had all visited Greece at one point. Everything (timing, designing process, communication, etc.) fell into the right spot with seeming mathematical precision, as if it was a decisive plan - designed and executed with no stumbles.

This was also a personal creative journey of light for me. I admire light passionately. It is what interests me most. In this process, I imagined light patterns reflected on the surface of the blue Mediterranean waters, in front of the boat and behind it. And so, to my deep satisfaction, this was also very much my own voyage - from a sparkle to sparkle of light.

Process

From the first meeting, it was obvious that we collaborative parties were compatible. We discussed numerous details, specifically the myth of Theseus and Minotaur, which is one of the most prominent stories of Greek mythology.
Then I received the architectural layout and photos of the exhibition space. Based on those materials, I made preliminary drawings/collages and presented them to the clients. One was chosen.
I started building scaffolding and, shortly thereafter, it was strong enough to hold the body of the boat. Using a torch (fire stolen by Prometheus from the Greek gods and then given to mortals; it must have been a flaming gift, so to say…), I then assembled the walls of the boat. Finally, utilizing a technique I developed some time ago – the Anna Skibska Technique – I was able to construct huge traps for light, to wrap up space, and to convey my thoughts.

Additional Information

I believe that architecture is a crown for art, sound and silence, light and dark, not merely brick and steel. Architecture and art are strongly connected: Fine arts do not decorate architecture; architecture is not a shell for fine arts. They are an integral part of each other, and this relationship interests me, as do monumental forms. I orchestrate my thoughts via a unique process known as the Anna Skibska Technique. I developed this method, and it has served me well: I like to wrap space, embrace time, and trap light, working on them simultaneously from the same beginning. My work comes to life as a statement, not an ornament. Ingredients: My aesthetics, my thoughts, my emotions, my education and my experience, materials that I use and jokes make my strong, luminous, urban, modern, clean line design. Also my mood, my whims, the color of the sky, the fragrance of my perfume (which I wore last Thu.), etc. My work tells the story about my enormous passion for life with truth to myself, light and beauty.