"From Fruit till Fantasy" by Marianna Sokól

Reflection of Marianna Sokól after attending my exhibition "From Fruit till Fantasy" in Lodz, Poland in 2009.

I would like to start by changing the name of the exhibition of Kasia Turajczyk. For me, ladies and gentlemen, the correct title should be “Poetry painted with a brush”. I needed a few days to digest the impressions that I got after visiting this exhibition of Kasia, and I bear them like the proverbial chicken with her egg.

I am not an artist, I am a writer and a poet, and I can’t describe the styles of works of art using technical jargon. It is only the beauty that grabs me and disturbs the rhythm of my heart. It is the beauty that sings and strikes faultlessly into my soul.
The paintings of the artist that I have seen at the exhibition have not only sung of beauty but have also sparkled like a golden sequin in the darkness of my ordinariness.

Some of the paintings made me uneasy, reminded me about great and mysterious things. Yes, you hear correctly, mysterious. Mysterious, because my imagination had been fired by the variety of the subjects and the multiplicity of expressions that I could not arrange, name or even picture. One has to be a great artist to impart such a broad range of art to people, in which every sensitive person can find her or his own, often forgotten nostalgias, longings, upsets, delights and admirations of the world but not only that. Some of the paintings forced you to think intensely, some absorbed ones attention with almost catastrophic suggestions. Two of the art works fascinated the wife of my grandson Lukasz so much that she wanted to buy them, but unfortunately she couldn’t afford it.

I would like to say something about those paintings. The first of them (Metropolis alias Moloch) in orange-brown-dark colours, suggested (to me at least) that after a horrible cataclysm only the shells of empty houses are left and no more life could be born again. The second painting has been painted in a fire red colour, we see hundred of dark persons on it headed as if in a trance to a burning semicircle. The semicircle is just about to start opening to absorb all the people and after that it will be closed forever. If people stopped in front of these paintings, they would not move for a long time. Watching, musing, as if they were joining the queue of the dark, bloody creatures in the painting. These works have absorbed my attention probably because of the anonymity of the expressions, the extraordinary colours and the camouflaging of the content – allowing unrestricted interpretation for the viewer.

My personal favourite, my own much loved painting, was entitled “A moment”. I will try to describe the large amount of feelings and impressions that I had while watching it. It is impossible to tell you about all of the perceptions and feelings I had but I would like to try and I hope that you will understand me. We have two boy's silhouettes, we see them from behind, they are walking and looking ahead. It is light and green around them. One can get an impression that the boys, brothers, friends are walking aimlessly, but this is only the first impression. The silhouettes breathe resoluteness, determination. They see a goal in front and they will reach it because of the nostalgia and their faith in something big and beautiful. The ramblers have a vision and during the walk they get more and more confident that they will reach the end and will achieve ther goal. Great power and the joy of victory is radiating from their small figures. I am going to join them. I throw away my sticks, because they prevent me from keeping up with them. I feel light, able, pushed by the confidence emanating from the boys. I am sure I will reach my goal just like they will. For me it could be the final one.

Thank you Kasia for your beautiful soul and your name (Kasia means something special to me)

Thank you for sharing your beautiful visions with us, with the world.

Marianna Sokól

(Writer and poet, a member of Polish Writer Society)
(Read during the opening of the Poetry Evening in Lodz, 13 October 2009)
(This review has been published in the Akant Magazine)