Maternity

The year of 1973 was very important in the artistic work of Stanisława Mąka as she debuted in the competition "Folk Art of Central Lublin Region" organised by the District Museum in Lublin, where she won the third prize for her painting work. From then on, she began to improve her artistic skills, not only painting, but also sculpting and creating cut-outs and Easter eggs.

She was born in 1938 in Depułtycze Kościelne in the Chełm poviat. In 1955, she married and settled in nearby Rozhjalov. She devoted her adult years to working on her own farm and bringing up her two children, son Andrzej and daughter Anna. A serious heart condition made farming too hard for her. Since 1972, she has concentrated on her art, using both traditional patterns and creating new forms. The themes of her paintings are mainly genre and ritual scenes. Rural landscapes dominate - everyday life, rituals, customs, architecture and old work: plucking feathers, grinding flax, washing with tadpoles, harvest, haymaking, digging potatoes. The author nostalgically recalls traditional agricultural and farm activities and spectacular family and church rituals. Her paintings are characterised by a vivid and rich range of colours, in harmony with the seasons of the year. Stanisława Mąka's paintings have documentary value.

She is equally at ease with sculpture, the secrets of which were taught to her by her husband Walerian, a folk poet and sculptor. She usually sculpts in linden wood, which she covers with polychrome. She takes up rural themes - she depicts mothers with children or women performing everyday household tasks, but she is fond of depictions of the Virgin Mary and the Sorrowful Christ, which are close to all folk artists.

Stanisława Mąka's works can be found in many museums - in Lublin, Chełm, Krasnystaw, Włodawa, Toruń and Kraków. Individual exhibitions of the artist were organised by cultural institutions in Chełm and the Association of Folk Artists (Stowarzyszenie Twórców Ludowych Zarząd Główny) in Lublin. For her artistic achievements she has received: the Distinguished Activist of Culture badge (1978), the Diploma of Honour of the Minister of Culture and Art (1981), the Cultural Award of the Lublin Voivodeship (2014), the Golden Cross of Merit of the President of the Republic of Poland, and in 2021 she was honoured with the Oskar Kolberg Award.