Recently, someone, looking at my collection, asked how I knew what do angels look like? I’d never seen them before… I laughed, because I’d asked myself that question myself…
What do angels look like?
I remember the day I entered an unfamiliar church and tried to look closely at the angels painted on the ceiling.
They were far away from me, but I could see every detail clearly, because angels in religious art are often large sculptures or paintings (thanks to this, the faithful can see them even from the other side of the church).
But that day, I began to wonder: do you always have to tilt your head to see angels’ faces?
When I started wondering what angels looked like…
…the thought occurred to me that they could look like tiny figures with baby faces, fitting in cupped hands.
What was my path from the idea to my first bas-relief of a sleeping angel?
I thought I would sculpt an angel with the face of a baby. Behind this thought was a heartfelt need. Images began to appear behind my eyelids. All I had to do was recreate them in clay…
What was the path from the idea to the realization of my angel collection?
I always work the same way, whether it’s a large sculptural form or a small bas-relief. At first, I first design, and then I implement what I’d designed in clay.
While working on the collection, I created more than a dozen drawings. I experimented a bit with glaze colors. Finally, when I fired another angel, I looked at it and thought that I had finally seen what I wanted to see.
Have I really seen everything?
Or perhaps we are limited in our perception of the world?
Perhaps the world is in reality much more beautiful, richer? Has it not occurred to us that we can only perceive a narrow slice of the reality around us – in the form our senses allow us to perceive?
This is what Aleksander Bańka writes in his book “The Secret Life of Angels.” It’s one of my favorite books. It inspires me.
Is it just me who imagines angels this way?
I read in another book that angels…
…looked like children, although their faces of exquisite beauty were serious, their eyes, when you looked into them, revealed a maturity that was not childlike, contrasting so strongly with the porcelain blush on their cheeks. They were dressed simply, like angels, in white. Flowing robes covered them tightly. The figures were given a sense of lightness by their large, feathery wings…
This is how Stasia Szczepaniak imagines angels (an interesting, but coincidental, similarity in names). When I read her words and looked at my angel bas-reliefs, I was convinced they couldn’t be mere figments of human imagination. Angels really do exist. How else could it be possible? Stasia hadn’t seen my angels, I hadn’t read her book before, and yet our imaginations were so similar…
What do Stasia’s angels look like? There’s only one difference…
…that’s what I thought when reading the above excerpt from the book. I can’t look into the eyes of my angels. They’re all asleep. Some nestled comfortably in their mother’s hand, others wrapped in their fluffy wings. But then I found another excerpt from this book:
The angels fell asleep, lulled by the song and the soothing presence of God. The blue around them slowly faded. So much so that finally all you could see were the stars, farther and farther away, until they became small, like salt crystals. Silence. Everyone fell asleep.
Just because I don’t see them doesn’t mean they don’t exist…
However, if I accept that the world is actually much richer, and what I see is only a certain aspect of it – my limited perspective – then, willingly or unwillingly, I must admit that there may also be beings in this world that I don’t see, with whom I have no sensory contact, and yet their presence is fully justified.
This is another excerpt from Aleksander Bańka’s book.
A summary, or perhaps a beginning…
Angels who left the cozy heaven found a home among humans. They are still with us, and although God misses them, they cannot return until they have fulfilled their mission. For this, they need both you and me… – wrote Stanisława.
Just because I don’t see them doesn’t mean they don’t exist… adds Aleksander.
I would like my tiny, winged, sleeping angels to find homes too, so that they remind people every day of a loving God and that even though we can’t see angels, they are always close to us.
What do the angels created in my studio look like?
I won’t show you the large project now.
You’ll find them in the section: sculpture and space design.
Here’s a collection of bas-reliefs of sleeping angels:
This text is based on the books:
Aleksander Bańka, “The Secret Life of Angels.”
What is this book about? The author shows the genesis of angels’ creation. You’ll learn where they came from, how long they’ve been in this world, and how they work. The book is based on Christian sources: Holy Scripture, the teachings of St. Thomas Aquinas, documents of the Catholic Church, and the visions and experiences of saints confirmed by the Church.
Stanisława Szczepaniak, “The Dream of Angels and Other Stories.”
What is this book about? About angels who came to Earth to dwell among humans. The book “The Dream of Angels and Other Stories” includes scripts by the extraordinary theatre group Kinsmen of God, which is part of the therapy for disabled people at the Day Care Facility for the Disabled in Skawina, managed by Stanisława Szczepaniak.
