Shortly after her return from Japan, Dorota created a series of litographs that explore Japanese culture. One of them, Unagi (eel), represents the relationship between a woman and a man. The eal symbolizes strength and masculinity and the two women stand for the types of female character. In the backgroung, there is a sakura tree in blossom, which represents the natural world. Another litograph, Momo, is about innocence and purity, which is what momo, a Japanese peach, symbolizes. Oshidori  is a mandarin duck - a symbol of love and faithfulness. 

In Japan, Dorota developed passion for painting flowers and plants. “Every day we had to bring a drawing of a local plant to one of our lessons. Our tutor was examining them very carefully. One day he decided we were fairly good at drawing them and further challenged us: "From now on, count every single vein on the leaf and paint it - that is how precise it must be!” recalls Dorota with a smile. Her watercolours, such as Nigella, Costus and Foeniculum follow the aesthetics of old herbariums and are painted with special pigments and brushes. 

Enigmatic stories are another theme in Dorota's art. The Tree of Dreams is a watercolour, inspired by one of Dorota’s favourite books, The Tree of Dreams by Mika Waltari, which is about forbidden love.

Cover photo: The Lithography Workshop of the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague (www.umprum.cz/web/en/umprum/workshops)