The love which I have for textured surfaces originates from my childhood. These memories from times past bring to mind the feel of old, time-eaten walls and sun-bleached cracked stone. Growing up on the beautiful rocky coast of the Adriatic only intensified this feeling.

 

The old houses (very few are in their original shape and size), with foundations centuries-old, would get refreshed with lime washes that sometimes had pale blue or green colour added to them. Our mother insisted that the most trafficked area, our kitchen, be lime-washed every couple of years at the very least.

​

Despite the regime that ruled Croatia, we practice our faith, work and survive from the land inherited from our forefathers.

 

Incredibly vivid in my memory are summer times when dark clouds would carry thunderstorms and hail, destroying the crop necessary to survive the winter. What I used to look upon as an unbearable hardship and misfortune, today I remember with gratitude. Never would I have known what it meant to be dependent on God’s mercy and provision without that hardship. I can still hear the bells of the heart of our community, our parish, the Church of St. Jerome, at the breaking of day, midday, dusk, Sundays and all the essential Feast Days and life happenings. Thus, my childhood experience and memories are one significant wholeness where faith, life, and nature intertwine.

 

Since 1970 I have lived and worked in Greater Vancouver Area, Canada.

 

Bozica Grskovic, Visual Artist   

​

​

​

​