Queen of Hearts - Stained Glass in Wawel Castle

I took this photo on a family excursion to Poland back in the Summer of 2001. It is from a side chapel in the Wawel Castle in Kraków. I love the rich colors, cartoonish vegetation, and heart shapes that float throughout the layered sections of this image. I'm not able to find a title of the piece, or any information about who it is depicting, although it is most likely a representation of the Virgin Mary. It appears that this figure is wearing a crown as the "Queen of Heaven", and her hands are crossed over her chest area drawing your eye to the "Immaculate Heart of Mary", a symbol of her joys and sorrows, virtues, and never-ending love for mankind.

This window was created in 1908 in the decorative Art Nouveau style by Józef Mehoffer (Polish artist, 1869-1946) for the Chapel Szafraniec. Józef Mehoffer was a Polish painter and decorative artist, one of the leaders of the Young Poland artistic movement from the late 1800s to early 1900s. He was one of the most revered Polish artists of his time, promoting such themes as decadence, symbolism, and neo-romanticism.

My Earliest Abstract Work of Art

I recently came across this abstract art project from my elementary school days. It was created by lining a shirt box with a piece of paper, tossing in a marble or small rubber ball, and some blobs of paint. The magic is made by closing the lid on the box, and with a few random shakes of the box, the ball rolls around through the paint. When you remove the lid, there is a surprise work of contemporary art on paper. I always loved this painting. It's my very own Jackson Pollock- style work of modern art.