"If growing up means it would be beneath my dignity to climb a tree, I'll never grow up, never grow up, never grow up! Not me!"
— J.M. Barrie (Peter Pan)

The painting “For Lesiu Orzesiu” is atypical for me at this moment. I used to paint in this way when I was 14 -16 years old. It was in the era when I first discovered oil paints and canvasses. My first oil painting, which I still have, presents Pinocchio, a toy made in Russia. I got it from Christopher, when I was 15 years old. I still have my Russian Pinocchio, unfortunately, he is missing his nose. The nose became detached somewhere, somehow, at some point during our joint trips. Pinocchio is made from plastic (such a very hard plastic) and is wearing knit wear made by me. I took him everywhere with me; we travelled together through almost the whole of Europe and some other parts of the world.

As a child I loved the story about Pinocchio and Geppetto. This wooden puppet gave me courage and hope that there was always a chance for salvation and rebirth. Although I was the opposite of Pinocchio, and told the truth. However, telling the truth got me constantly in trouble, too. I remember being surprised hearing my Mum telling lies and not growing donkey ears, I really expected her ears to grow. I am still waiting for this magical moment. When I finally realized that telling the truth is not practical, it was already too late for me. Not telling the truth turned out to be even greater torture than telling the truth. At some point of my life I started to create made-up stories, and this fact began to cause me much satisfaction, especially observing people listening to my far-fetched absurdities. My excuses for doing that were very simple. It was not lying or cheating with premeditation, it was just my imagination that needed to take flight.

Returning to the painting “For Lesiu Orzesiu” the creatures in it are real and the colours too. Lesiu asked me to make his beloved creatures immortal. I guess the painting will travel to India with him, soon. And so the word became flesh (the painting!) It is a medium sized painting on canvas 70cm x 50cm. I used the best Rembrandt’s acrylic paints (I think they are one of the best) with a minimum admixture of oil.
I hope that Peter Pan will always be alive in Lesiu and that Lesiu never lets him fade into oblivion. Amen!

The topsy-turfy garden of Lyalls Cottage by Kasia B. Turajczyk

My two new paintings, actually collages. I painted them in Dunchideock, in my studio in the Garden of Lyalls Cottage. I forgot it to present them to you.

These two paintings belong to the series The Secret Garden of Lyalls Cottage. They are abstracts, both acrylics on board, small sizes. 

They are very colourful and very bizarre in some ways. I used an incredible lot of weird stuff to make them. The garden of Lyalls Cottage is a very rich source for beautiful, colourful and natural (living as well as dead) objects, and junk. It is amazingly wonderful.

Usually I always explain what I add/ put/ use to make a painting. Not this time. It is a puzzle for you. Find out what I used to make them and then tell me. If you are right I have a nice surprise for you.

I have to frame this paintings, it will be not an easy task to do it, I am afraid.

I am just happy in this garden by Kasia B.T.

The title of this work is "My past and my future", the newest one "my past and my future"

This Past represents the small abstract oil painting, the colourful one with the poem. It is a real poem, written by my. Occasionally I am possessed by my muse. In a sudden incandescence I become a poet.

Although I know that it's impossible
I want to touch your nakedness,
To get close to you.

So you open me the door to your dreams at least once,
When I dare to knock.

I would like to eat you like a mango,
In the way only I can do,
With sensitive perversion.

Embrace you like a Texan landscape embraced from a plane,
Without peaks, mountains and hills, sunny and boring.

If you couldn't lock yourself on seven locks and you didn't turn seven times seven keys in these locks than maybe something could be possible.

Give me one, this smallest key, please!

The small abstract I made in 2004. At the moment that I placed it on a big, white space of the canvas it became a new painting. The white canvas, the future is connected with the past, the small abstract painting by wires. Depending on the mood it could be connected outside (behind the canvas) or inside around the canvas. Our future is almost certainly determined by the choices that we made in the past and by the time that is left to us.

My past and my future by Kasia B. Turajczyk

I am thinking about framing it in a transparent frame. Maybe Plexiglas. I am curious about this idea. Or maybe I should use a black frame, since our future is limited by death. However why should death be black? Maybe death is colourful and elusive, like a rainbow?

The painting is made up of two panels. I painted the first panel, the small one, during a winter night a few weeks after his death. His death was so unreal for me. I couldn’t accept it. It was so surrealistic that when thinking about it I felt nothing, nothing at all. This was a fearful-paranoid experience.  For this small panel I used oil paints, seeds and some grains.

The final painting I finished only a week ago, in February, 2009. The second canvas once belonged to Maciek. He didn’t finish it, there were only a few spots. I left them; the blue and the red spots on the background panel are his spots.

* from art catalogeus- Maciej Szewczyk, February 1994