Embroidery, cut outs, and childhood

Here is the prime example of an inspiring item around which I grew up, about which I wrote about in the first blog: a Hungarian embroidered pillow. This black pillow has always been a happy site-- I love the drama of the black background with the bright colors and shapes floating on top. The complex pattern is visual entertainment to me: there is movement, mystery and personality in these forms and how they relate and fit into one another. In this photo, the pillow is upsidedown: please twist you head to see it from how its creator meant the motif to be seen.

Growing up, I was also lucky that a kind and smart person gave me this craft/game called "Fuzzy Felts". It had a black piece of felt-on-board the same size of the box, that was the stage for placing these different shapes of colored felt on top. You can see that the effect of a Fuzzy Felt composition was similar to the pillow. The drama of the bright colors on the black, the strong forms, and the fitting of shapes are, to me, an invitation into an animated world similar to that of the pillow (but without the Hungarian flavor). Taking the photo of the interior of the Fuzzy Felts box, it struck me that the way the shapes are sitting in the different compartments of the box is just like how I store the pieces of painted paper that I cut out and keep for the next collage. Let this be further proof of the beneficial influences of childhood play!

Artist Andrea Dezsö

To continue the Hungarian theme: last week I went to a show at the Hungarian Cultural Center here in New York City, to see the work of Romanian/Hungarian artist, Andrea Dezsö.

In two very Hungarian words I will describe her work: TOTALLY AWESOME.


This is a show of tiny sewn embroideries, illustrating the superstitious belief system of the artist's Mother. They are a brilliant combination of funny, dark, clever, and beautiful. The work is intimate in subject matter and scale. I suspect that anyone with a superstitious mother, of any nationality, will feel a connection
to this work.

Andrea is an accomplished artist in many media, and an educator. You can her other work, and more examples of these embroideries on Andrea Dezsö's site.

Welcome to Nina Frenkel's Art Blog

Greetings and welcome to my site, and to this blog, where I will be writing about
and sharing the visuals of that which I find inspiring to me, as an Illustrator and Animator.

There are many artists past and present who have influenced my work, and I
will tip my hat to them in this blog, as well share my new discoveries.

To start things off, I'm going to answer a question about my work, which sometimes arises when people see pieces like this:

"Why the Hungarian theme?"

I grew up in a house full of Hungarian folk art and the graphic design work and books of my Hungarian-born Mother's family, the Kners. Embroidered pillows, ceramic pitchers, beautifully bound books printed from the Kner Press, the original book cover illustrations done by my grandfather, Albert Kner (more on these in a future blog), all populated the house. The shapes and colors of the folk art have influenced my work on a formal level: but my experience in this family, the family stories, and the atmosphere surrounding these many pieces around which I grew up, are all important parts of the engine which drives my work.