I got interested in embroidery because I wanted to explore photography and the different ways we store our photos. I want to keep my memories "in fabrics" instead of on a mobile phone or on my computer memory. That way they become more meaningful. I started with a few old photos from our family archive, made some illustrations and embroidered them. Then I did the same with the photos I took. The initial impulse for the collection was this flashback from my childhood - I was eight years old and we got these packages with embroidered doilies made by my aunt Jana who was in prison at the time. When she got out, I become obsessed with embroidery and asked her to teach me. I embroidered two table cloths. But then I fell out of the habit and just put it down to a passing phase. But looking at those photos, those memories flooded back. I thought that I wouldn't be able to get back into it, but then I gave it a try and it all came back. So here I am embroidering once again! The things I choose to highlight in my work come to me haphazardly, really. It could be a shallow photo, or an image of random people taken on a crowded street. Sometimes I take photos and when I look at them later, something extraordinary always emerges. No matter what that something is, it always speaks of some inner freedom. That can find expression in a person's body language, a walk or a certain style, I don't know.
