The idea of taking art to the community came from Jim (my partner). I think he was just bored with my constant monologue about contemporary art, or to be more accurate perhaps I should say modern contemporary art.

My monologue was about these issues:

• How alienated modern contemporary art is from the image about art of the average man and woman in the street. The average person visiting a very contemporary art gallery or modern art centre at the present time doesn’t understand most of the presenting art works. She or he wants to understand the “art works”. Because they can’t understand it, explain it, find any sense in it, they think they don’t possess the academic knowledge about modern art, and they just don’t like it.
• How alienated, exhausted and recessive art that is currently presented in contemporary art galleries, art shows and modern art museums.  Actually, nobody understands contemporary art these days:  not the art historicists, not the art curator, not even the people who are writing the articles in the art magazines or introductions in the books. Very often even the makers/the artists don’t understand them either. They just like it and make it up, because that is what others expect of them.
• Art doesn’t exist anymore. Most of the 'Art' isn't art any more. Nothing is art and everything is art. Art is about personal and emotional engagement. You like it or you do not, you feel it or you do not feel it; it makes you laugh, it makes you cry, it makes you angry, it makes you disgusted. It is OK!  How few techniques and skills are possessed by the new generation of students graduating from the Art Colleges these days.
• Most of the artists presented in museums are talking to themselves, and have an inner dialogue with their empty mind.
• However Pablo Picasso said:  “Everyone wants to understand art. Why not try to understand the song of a bird? .. People who try to explain pictures are usually barking up the wrong tree.” Art is about feeling….or should I say NON-ART is about sensation.  Maybe we never should think about what an artist is trying to convey, just concentrate on what the piece means to you, how it makes you feel. After all it is your personal experience!

And so forth and so forth…..

One day, just a few hours before our trip to the ocean (body boarding) Jim came out with a idea about taking ART to ordinary people and discussing contemporary art and art in general.  “And the word became flesh and dwelt among us” since September 29, 2011.

The primary aim of the project is to take contemporary art out of galleries and museums, to take it out of artist's studios, and to show it to all sorts of different people in a variety of environments and locations around South West England.

We would like to discover from the ordinary people of Devon and Cornwall, what kind of art they like and what they don’t like. What contemporary art means to them? Are they interested in art at all? Is there a place for art in their life, living room, kitchen, mind? Or maybe they are not interested in art at all? These are the sort of questions we are going to be asking people on our travels. Maybe we will ask you too!

The preview of Contemporary Art in the Community

Widemouth Bay, North Cornwall, South West England
Thursday 29th September 2011

In which Graham meets a being born in the nebula of the constellation of Orion for the very first time, and is moved by Mintaka's message for mankind.

]]> http://blog.kasiaturajczyk.com/2011/10/contemporary-art-in-the-community-1n/feed/ 1 http://blog.kasiaturajczyk.com/2011/09/british-art-show-7-in-plymouth-in-the-days-of-the-comet/ http://blog.kasiaturajczyk.com/2011/09/british-art-show-7-in-plymouth-in-the-days-of-the-comet/#comments Sat, 17 Sep 2011 20:21:13 +0000 Kasia http://blog.kasiaturajczyk.com/?p=712 I have a huge hangover after visiting yesterday the BAS7 Plymouth – British Art Show 7 in Plymouth, "In the days of the Comet". Nothing that I saw was actually good or blasphemous or new. It seems that our cultural horizons are shrinking. The exhibited pieces weren't optimistic or pessimistic, they were totally empty without any message. I heard one of the curators saying (in one of the speeches at the University) about the 39 brilliant, excellent artists who represent the best of the British art scene. No comment. What I saw was a collection of mediocrity and copies of the past. I am not angry, I am sad. The only funny thing that I liked it was the huge, orange Micky Mouse. Art? – no, but entertainment – yes.

More on British Art Show 7 in Plymouth, "In the days of the Comet"

]]> I have a huge hangover after visiting yesterday the BAS7 Plymouth – British Art Show 7 in Plymouth, "In the days of the Comet". Nothing that I saw was actually good or blasphemous or new. It seems that our cultural horizons are shrinking. The exhibited pieces weren't optimistic or pessimistic, they were totally empty without any message. I heard one of the curators saying (in one of the speeches at the University) about the 39 brilliant, excellent artists who represent the best of the British art scene. No comment. What I saw was a collection of mediocrity and copies of the past. I am not angry, I am sad. The only funny thing that I liked it was the huge, orange Micky Mouse. Art? – no, but entertainment – yes.

It seems to me that art scene at the moment is best to describe as exhausted and recessive. Anyway, what is presented in the modern art centres. The 'average' people don't understand what the modern/ temporary artists do, they don't like the avant-garde of our time, they don't like it, do not appreciate it, they don't see it as art. I don't blame them. I think most of the artists presented in museums are talking to themselves, have an inner dialogue with their empty mind. Most of the 'Art' isn't art any more. Nothing is art and everything is art. And I blame Duchamp for that ))



Fountaine - Duchamp

]]> http://blog.kasiaturajczyk.com/2011/09/british-art-show-7-in-plymouth-in-the-days-of-the-comet/feed/ 7 http://blog.kasiaturajczyk.com/2011/09/devon-open-studios-2011-third-day-out-of-the-blue/ http://blog.kasiaturajczyk.com/2011/09/devon-open-studios-2011-third-day-out-of-the-blue/#comments Tue, 06 Sep 2011 15:20:35 +0000 Kasia http://blog.kasiaturajczyk.com/?p=705 Yesterday completely out of the blue a German couple visited my studio. They had just followed the yellow signs, not knowing what would be at the end of them. They not only loved my paintings but even bought one. We talked about modern art, especially modern conceptual German art. She lives in Essen and he is from Wuppertal. I absolutely enjoyed my time spent with those two very interesting individuals who really were into modern conceptual art.
She loves my weird stuff, like My Brain

More on Devon Open Studios 2011 – third day "Out of the blue".

]]> Yesterday completely out of the blue a German couple visited my studio. They had just followed the yellow signs, not knowing what would be at the end of them. They not only loved my paintings but even bought one. We talked about modern art, especially modern conceptual German art. She lives in Essen and he is from Wuppertal. I absolutely enjoyed my time spent with those two very interesting individuals who really were into modern conceptual art.
She loves my weird stuff, like My Brain



A conversation with my cosmos, 2010 from the Series My Brain

and all my collages but also my more representative work. They thought about buying my Tree.



The Decrepit limbs of Mr Elm

At one point we went to my Summer Studio (I only paint there between late Spring and middle Autumn). When he saw my Blueberry Biker he decided to buy it. So my lovely Blueberry Biker has left me. Now I have to paint his next adventure and his beautiful lover.

In the late afternoon I had another visitor, a lovely lady who visited me a year before.
The third day of Devon Open Studios 2011 wasn't so bad after all!


Blueberry Biker on his way to his lover hidden in a golden cage.

]]> http://blog.kasiaturajczyk.com/2011/09/devon-open-studios-2011-third-day-out-of-the-blue/feed/ 1 http://blog.kasiaturajczyk.com/2009/05/red-swan-painting/ http://blog.kasiaturajczyk.com/2009/05/red-swan-painting/#comments Mon, 18 May 2009 21:19:10 +0000 Kasia http://blog.kasiaturajczyk.com/?p=135 The inspiration for this Red Swan painting is the Black Swan; the Black Swan phenomenon, the Black Swan problem, the History of the Black Swan and the Black Swan book by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. In summary, just the Black Swan. Actually till the moment that I held this book by Taleb in my hand I had never before heard about the Black Swan problem and phenomenon. My friend gave this book to me and said that I will love it. You see I studied philosophy and I love complicated, stubborn, controversial and unusual things. This book blew me away. This guy, Nicholas Taleb is an incredibly intelligent person-brain, intellectual dissident and a brilliant writer and in some way an academic libertarian.

More on Red Swan – a new painting

]]> The inspiration for this Red Swan painting is the Black Swan; the Black Swan phenomenon, the Black Swan problem, the History of the Black Swan and the Black Swan book by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. In summary, just the Black Swan. Actually till the moment that I held this book by Taleb in my hand I had never before heard about the Black Swan problem and phenomenon. My friend gave this book to me and said that I will love it. You see I studied philosophy and I love complicated, stubborn, controversial and unusual things. This book blew me away. This guy, Nicholas Taleb is an incredibly intelligent person-brain, intellectual dissident and a brilliant writer and in some way an academic libertarian.

Back to the Black Swan phenomenon. Before the discovery of Australia, people were convinced that all swans were white. This fact illustrates a severe limitation to our learning from observations or experience and the fragility of our knowledge.
I will describe here the Black Swan phenomenon using the words of Taleb.

First, it is an outlier, as it lies outside the realm of regular expectation; because nothing in the past can convincingly point to its possibility. Second, it carries an extreme impact. Third, in spite of its outlier status, human nature makes us concoct explanations for its occurrence after the fact, making it explainable and predictable.

Summarize  the triplet: rarity, extreme impact, and retrospective predictability.

What is the Black Swan logic? What you don’t know is far more relevant that what you do know. And now think about my Red Swan. What you don’t see in my painting is far more relevant that what you do see!

Here is the painting: the painting consists of two panels.



Red Swan by Kasia B.Turajczyk

The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable

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