Art for Raw Food

When Kathy and I first started thinking about a raw food cafe, we decided we wanted the place where we fed people food prepared with love to be like our home, a place that people felt good.

The Beauty of Stained Glass
In our home, we have art that makes us feel good and that we think makes our house "feel" good--some of the people who came to our house said, "Wow, it really feels good in here."

A few years ago, I bought Kathy a large stained glass sculpture that hangs in the second story window in our living room; the sun shines through it and casts multi-colored light on the bamboo floors in our living room. It's one of those focal pieces that adds to the feel good feeling.

Fast forward to December of 2007.

After we opened the restaurant, my mom said to me, "Did you know that Billy Jarecki and his wife have an art gallery in town?" She told me where it was. Just a couple blocks from Borrowed Earth Cafe.

I hadn't seen Billy since the night of graduation from Holy Trinity Grammar School in June of 1976, almost 32 years ago. Billy, for those of you who read my book, Yoga: The Secret, was in Mrs. Winings' class with me. We were friends in grammar school. We played basketball together on the school team, got together outside of school. Billy even helped me get my first job in sixth grade as a paper boy. He was a nice kid. After graduation, he went to Bennet Academy and I went to Westmont High School.

After the cafe opened, Kathy and I wandered over to 1014 Curtis Street to Gallery's Choice.

Behind the counter talking to someone was a man about my age with salt and pepper hair and a moustache.

Billy Jarecki. Like me, 32 years older.

As we re-connected, Kathy and I couldn't help noticing the beautiful pieces on display. Billy and his wife Rose are not only artisans, their shop also provides a place for other artists to display and sell their works.

And, we saw some beautiful stained glass work.

In our quest to continue to re-create the feeling of our home at Borrowed Earth Cafe, we latched on to the idea of having some stained glass.

Remembering Billy's penchant for math and seeing his and Rose's skill with stained glass, some months later, on a whim when he was in the cafe, I showed him a web image of the Shri Yantra mandala, which I always thought would make an awesome stained glass and threw out a challenge, "Do you think you could make a stained glass for our window?"

He studied the picture.

"Yeah," he said studying the images series of connected triangles.

A few weeks later, Billy and Rose had produced not one, but two Shri Yantras.

One hangs in our window and the other is in a stand on our front counter. We decided that Billy and Rose could sell them out of the cafe, which would also allow us the privilege of enjoying them. But, we fell in love with the one in the window and decided to make it a permanent fixture.

I called Billy. "We have a buyer for the Shri Yantra in the window."

"Great!" he said.

The next time he was in, we gave him a check.

We asked Billy and Rose to come up with a little prose describing their piece and their art, and after some wrangling, here's what they gave me:

Sri Yantras

We bid you peace and wellness.

Our hands first touched the breath taking media of stained glass in 1994, but love for the colors and textures captured us long before that.  Relaxation was our true goal when we first embarked on this challenging, yet rewarding endeavor. Eventually we would realize that the glass wasn't just a pastime. It would quickly become the equivalent of daily therapy.

Glass is a media like no other. Each piece has a unique personality and a vibration all its own. It needs gentle coaxing to take the form you desire. Harsh or angry, glass cutting just doesn't work. That sounds so strange, it's almost too strange to write. But the positive energy used to create great glass gives as much as it uses. It feeds on itself. It grows and extends from your gingers into your work. And the work gives it all back to you.

The Sri Yantra mandalas created for Borrowed Earth Cafe we created to reflect that positive energy. These challenging designs were created with a compass and straight edge; no measurements, no tracing. The glass of choice was carefully selected to reflect a soothing and calming feeling that we hope will b passed onto you.

Through this work, we wish you personal peace, wellness and an abundance of joy. We wish for you the ability to center yourself. And we wish you happiness.

Yours With Love,

Rose and Bill


Gallery's Choice
1014 Curtiss Street
Downers Grove, IL  60515

email: rosejarecki@galleryschoice.com
 phone: (630) 969-5660