Be Yourself / Love Me Hard is a multi-year series of works by Dominika Pomarańska, developed from 2013 to 2026—an artistic process that matured, changed, and transformed with experience, time, and subsequent stages of her career.

The collection began with the “Be Yourself” series—hand-embroidered paintings on jute, reflecting on identity, the courage to choose one’s own path, and responsibility for one’s own decisions. In 2025, their transformation began and they expanded into the “Love Me Hard” series, which featured intense, sculptural textures, work with fabric, embroidery, and her own structural mass, which builds the painting’s surface. This process is ongoing—some works have been completed, others remain in further stages of transformation.

Each painting is created in multiple stages and is a unique object. The first layer is created by hand through embroidery on jute, then the surface is built sculpturally by applying and transforming the original material, giving the works depth and tension.

The common, though invisible, element of all the paintings is Dominika’s time and life – its presence, layering and trace of the process inscribed in the structure of the work.

“Love Me Hard” is not an extension of “Be Yourself,” but its consequence—a movement from identity to relationship, from decision to action, from comfort zone to experience. It is a collection about change, time, and meanings that are not given once and for all, but arise and transform through process.

The Be Yourself x Love Me Hard collection is Dominika’s long-term artistic project, also known as a life project. This is the name given to it by Rafał Kamecki—art market expert, founder, and president of the website Artinfo.pl—indicating its long-term, processual nature and the consistent construction of meanings over the years.

Collection: Be Yourself × Love Me Hard
Year of creation: 2013 – 2026
Technique: original textured mass, hand embroidery (threads)
Basis: wood, jute
Dimensions: 115 cm × 95 cm

The work is part of the Be Yourself / Love Me Hard collection, in which Dominika Pomarańska explores the relationship between the simplicity of symbolism and the complexity of emotion. The composition is based on a clear division into two states: “Happy” and “Sad.”

The banana motif – presented in two inverted configurations – can resemble both a smile and a grimace of sadness.

The layered structure creates an irregular frame for the painting, introducing an element of physical matter and tension. In contrast, hand-embroidered embroidery with floss appears – an intimate, personal gesture that emphasizes the artist’s presence in the work’s structure.

Happy / Sad Banana is a reflection on the duality of experience – on how thin the line between joy and sadness can be, and how much the meaning of an image depends on the viewer’s feelings.

Collection: Be Yourself × Love Me Hard
Year of creation: 2013 / completed 2025
Technique: handmade paste, hand embroidery (threads)
Basis: wood, jute
Dimensions: 115 cm × 95 cm

The painting DON’T WORRY, MY LOVE is part of the Be Yourself x Love Me Hard collection, in which the artistic process remains closely linked to personal experience. The work was begun in 2013 and completed in 2025, making time one of the key, yet invisible, elements of the work.

The surface is constructed from the artist’s own mass, applied in layers, in a gesture akin to sculpture. The material overrides the original message, introducing a tension between what is revealed and what is hidden. Hand-embroidered floss adds an element of intimacy and tenderness, contrasting with the weight and austerity of the structure.

The work functions as a record of transformation.

Collection: Be Yourself / Love Me Hard
Year of creation: 2013–2025
Technique: original textured mass, hand embroidery (threads)
Basis: wood, jute
Dimensions: 115 cm × 95 cm

The painting belongs to the Be Yourself / Love Me Hard collection, in which the artistic process remains inextricably linked to personal experience and time, understood as the work’s full-fledged material. The work, realized in stages over the years, was completed in 2025.

The painting’s surface is constructed from an original structural mass applied in layers, in a gesture akin to sculpture. Hand-embroidered floss introduces an element of intimacy and personal recording, standing in stark contrast to the rawness and resistance of the structure. The juxtaposition of techniques builds a relationship between fragility and determination, delicacy and the necessity of action.

The work functions as a visual manifestation of an emotional attitude—a rejection of shortcuts and simplifications in favor of commitment, effort, and conscious choice of path. It is a story about love as a process requiring courage, creativity, lightness, and the support and affirmation of the uniqueness of experience.

Collection: Be Yourself × Love Me Hard
Year of creation: 2013 – 2025
Technique: original textured mass, hand embroidery (threads)
Basis: wood, jute
Dimensions: 115 cm × 95 cm

The painting belongs to the Be Yourself / Love Me Hard collection, in which the artistic process remains inextricably linked to personal experience. The work was created over the course of years and completed in 2025, making time one of the key—though invisible—elements of the work.

The surface is constructed from a proprietary structural mass, applied in layers, in a gesture akin to sculpture. The material partially obscures the text, creating a tension between what is revealed and what is left unsaid. The hand-embroidered embroidery brings an element of intimacy and tenderness, countering the weight and austerity of the structure.

The work functions as a manifestation of an emotional choice—a decision to experience intensity even when it is impermanent.

Collection: Be Yourself × Love Me Hard
Year of creation: 2013 / completed 2025
Technique: original textured mass, hand embroidery (threads)
Basis: wood, jute
Dimensions: 115 cm × 95 cm

The painting EVERYTHING YOU DESIRE MY SUN is part of the Be Yourself × Love Me Hard collection, in which the artistic process remains closely linked to personal experience. The work was begun in 2013 and completed in 2025, making time one of the key, yet invisible, elements of the work.

The surface is constructed from the artist’s own mass, applied in layers in a gesture akin to sculpture. The material overwrites the original message, introducing a tension between what is revealed and what is hidden. Hand-embroidered floss adds an element of intimacy and tenderness, contrasting with the weight and austerity of the structure.

The work functions as a record of transformation.

Collection: Be Yourself × Love Me Hard
Year of creation: 2013 – 2025
Technique: original textured mass, hand embroidery (threads)
Basis: wood, jute
Dimensions: 115 cm × 95 cm

The painting “RESPECT YOUR TIME” is part of the Be Yourself x Love Me Hard collection, in which the creative process is directly connected to personal experience and extended over time. The work was begun in 2013 and completed in 2025, making time not only the subject but also the actual material of the work.

The composition is based on the juxtaposition of the raw structure of jute with the intense, almost pulsating matter of the original mass. Hand-embroidered letters build the message slowly, requiring concentration and patience—each stitch becomes a unit of time, its record and trace.

The sculptural layer, applied gesturally, surrounds and partially disrupts the painting’s frame, as if time were transcending its own boundaries, escaping control, yet simultaneously demanding attention. Intense color accents introduce tension—a reminder of urgency, of postponed decisions, and of moments that never return.

The work functions as a personal manifesto. “Respect your time” is not a motivational slogan here, but an experience – a record of the path, choices and the awareness that time is the only value that cannot be regained or recreated.

Collection: Be Yourself × Love Me Hard
Year of creation: 2013 – 2025
Technique: original textured mass, hand embroidery (threads)
Basis: wood, jute
Dimensions: 115 cm × 95 cm

The painting belongs to the Be Yourself x Love Me Hard collection, in which the creative process is directly connected to personal experience and extended over time. The work was begun in 2013 and completed in 2025, making time one of the key, yet invisible, elements of the work. The composition is based on a dialogue between delicacy and intensity. A layer of jute with visible stitching and joints creates a backdrop for the embroidered words—records of relationships, messages, and emotions that shape how we learn about closeness.

The hand-embroidery, slow and demanding, gives the message a personal and almost intimate dimension. The original mass, applied with a sculptural gesture, builds structure and tension, partially obscuring and revealing individual fragments. The intense color palette enhances the emotional weight of the message, drawing the viewer’s attention to the word “LOVE”—the work’s center of meaning.

The work functions as a reflection on relationality. The way we treat others becomes the language we use to teach the world how to treat us. It’s a record of the process—building boundaries, closeness, and responsibility for the quality of relationships.

Collection: Be Yourself × Love Me Hard
Year of creation: 2013 – 2025
Technique: original textured mass, hand embroidery (threads)
Basis: wood, jute
Dimensions: 115 cm × 95 cm

The painting SOMETIMES YOU DON’T KNOW WHO’S RIGHT, LET IT GO, MOVE ON, is part of the Be Yourself x Love Me Hard collection, in which the creative process is directly linked to personal experience and the passage of time. The work was begun in 2013 and completed in 2025, making time one of the work’s key, yet invisible, materials.

The composition is based on the tension between rawness and tenderness. The layer of jute—with its visible stitching and traces of joints—becomes a metaphor for situations in which it’s difficult to clearly determine who is right. The embroidered words create an emotional record, almost an internal monologue leading from uncertainty to decision.

The artist’s paste, applied with a sculptural gesture, partially covers and reveals the surface, creating a sense of transformation. The intense, hand-embroidered inscription “LET IT GO” becomes the climax—a moment of letting go, which is not resignation, but a conscious choice to move forward. “MOVE ON” does not mean escape, but rather a consequence of inner work and a consent to continue onward.

The work functions as a record of the process of liberation—from the need for reasons, control, and retention—toward acceptance, decision, and change.

Collection: Be Yourself × Love Me Hard
Year of creation: 2013 – 2025
Technique: original textured mass, hand embroidery (threads)
Basis: wood, jute
Dimensions: 115 cm × 95 cm

The work is part of the Be Yourself / Love Me Hard collection, whose visual language is based on the confrontation of emotional patterns with the need for action. The painting was created in stages over the years, and its final form was completed in 2025.

The composition is based on a clear division of space and meaning. The slogan “Your single zone” is placed within a symbolically marked area of ​​safety—a zone of comfort, habit, and emotional stagnation. The message “where the love me hard happens” functions outside of it, as a space requiring exit, decision, and risk.

The layered structural mass partially obscures the text, introducing physical resistance to its reception. The material not only builds the surface of the painting but also becomes a metaphor for the barriers that must be crossed to reach meaning. The hand-embroidered embroidery with floss introduces an element of intimacy and personal record, contrasting with the austerity of the structure and the directness of the message.

The work functions as a visual manifestation of choice—rejecting the “single” zone and comfort in favor of movement, courage, and emotional engagement. It is a story about love as a space that does not happen in a safe center, but beyond the boundaries of habit, where action, exposure and consciously leaving one’s own zone are necessary.