Bauernmalerei, or European folk painting originated over 1000 years ago.  As an Arabesque art form, it moved through Spain and Venice into Europe flourishing in the 16th and 17th centuries. The tulip, carnation, pomegranate and bird became the symbols found in the early kloisters.  After Paris and Nuremberg converted the designs to print, German, Swiss and Austrian artists absorbed the designs into their own style of painting.  Laura Solomon, a native New Englander, having lived in Switzerland for 13 years, now recaptures these motifs in her own pottery creations.