What caught my attention was what  she said about the way she begins a work.

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“The essential element of my visual language is a dialogue with the surface.”

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Rather than treating the surface simply as a place on which to put an image, Tracewska pays attention to what is already there, the texture of plaster, the markings in stone, the character of the mosaic itself, and responds to it.

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Her work often brings together materials such as stone, glass, gold, onyx and mother-of-pearl. Light and reflection become part of the image, changing what we see as we move around the work.

I like the idea of a dialogue with the surface.

 

It suggests that making isn't always about deciding what the material should do.

Sometimes it begins by noticing what it is already doing.