Metropolis and its heart, acrylics on canvas; 90cm x 90cm

I have been thinking for a long time about what constitutes the heart of the big city. What could it be? The technology and the evolutionary progress and development in the education of homo sapiens? Or our nature, the fact that we are sociable, a social and collective animal? However this is inconsistent with the reality – people who live in a small village or town are more sociable and less anonymous than those who live in big molochs. Living in a big city makes us 100% nameless, more private and more secret.

Our planet, our Earth can exist without us, maybe better than with us. But what about the Metropolis? Metropolis is a human creation. Without homo sapiens there will be no Metropolis. After 100 years, maybe even less than that, the Metropolis will be trash, in ruins, a great source for fantasy art paintings and illustrations.

The Metropolis is such a big thing and the order within it is not constrained during its development to repeat the things that exist in one part in any other part. Even if we reflect that the big cities were made by and for people, some order exists in it without our knowledge. There is also a lot of order in the creation of Metropolis which we humans have put there, like a string in a maze, so that we shall not lose our way. However the living system that is Metropolis has its own order, but the brain is separated from the heart. This amazing, ill and degenerate body, also beautifully ruthless and always sleepless, can’t exist without us humans. Therefore the heart of the Metropolis is us – PEOPLE.

If you see the painting in the flesh you can spot lots of creatures inside the central part of the work, and also lots of small creatures all around the suburbs. We are the heart!

Winter in Dunchideock by Kasia Turajczyk, acrylic on board - 2010

Autumn in Dunchideock by Kasia B. Turajczyk

I present my new fantasy abstract paintings from the series Four Seasons. (N.B. it has nothing to do with The Four Seasons of Vivaldi; however I love his four violin concertos, especially when listening to them in Venice – the perfect place, with an exciting past and a unique atmosphere)

I painted "Autumn in Dunchideock” first, without the intention of it being a part of a series. But yesterday I painted “Winter in Dunchideock” and now I am sure that Spring and Summer will follow.
In both paintings I used acrylics plus lots of weird materials. It is a real pleasure to experiment with seeds, plants, flowers and wax mixed with acrylics.

The autumn was the most colourful time, maybe still dominated by green (it is always green here) but also full of warm nuances of red, brown, yellow, blue and purple colures.

The winter is greenish- brownish-dark, somehow cool, and from time to time snow-white or frost-white.

I am wondering what will happen with the magnolia trees. At one point in December the Magnolias were in full bud. I hope they will survive the cold days and the frost at night. I love to watch them when they are in bloom. They look like Russian princesses from the Russian folk fairy tales. That just gave me an idea for a new fantastic painting: homage to the Great Russian painter Mikhail Aleksandrovich Vrubel + Magnolia tree + Snow Queen.

]]> http://blog.kasiaturajczyk.com/2010/01/four-seasons/feed/ 2 http://blog.kasiaturajczyk.com/2009/12/merry-xmas-greetings/ http://blog.kasiaturajczyk.com/2009/12/merry-xmas-greetings/#comments Tue, 15 Dec 2009 10:58:18 +0000 Kasia http://blog.kasiaturajczyk.com/?p=304 Merry Christmas to everyone!

I love this time of the year. I know lots of people think it is nonsense and commercial and only about money, food, drink, and presents and this kind of stuff.

More on Merry Christmas 2009

Merry Christmas to everyone!

I love this time of the year. I know lots of people think it is nonsense and commercial and only about money, food, drink, and presents and this kind of stuff.

For me Christmas means hope for us. I always become very hopeful for our species (normally I am not), more positive, more optimistic in this time of the year. It is just for a very short time but it keeps me going for the next year.

And I love decorating the Christmas Tree (a very old pagan tradition), probably it is very silly, but I just find it irresistible.
Again, Merry Christmas and a really peaceful 2010 (no war!) for this planet.

Here is a special message from Mintaka with a really funny mixed media art work.

My name is Mintaka. I am stranger here; I was born in the Nebula of Orion.

Your species is dominant, but weird. The only time in the long calendar of the year when you are kind, forgiving, charitable and pleasant for each other is the Christmas time. It is the only time when “men and women open their shut-up hearts freely”. (One of your famous writers pointed this out a long time ago).

I am not sure I understand that. Why don’t you behave in such a way on all the other days of the year? I am watching you and waiting to see you brave and beautiful. Maybe one day….

Mintaka Meditating on the Meaning of Christmas

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If we don’t know the title for a painting and no description is given to us, then each of us will interpret it in different ways depending on the individual. Every version could be right, every reading could be wrong.

A painting is not a collection of images in the way that a film is, it is just one static frame. If you read the title first and then proceed to analyze and study the painting, you will be conditioned by what you’ve read along with your interpretation of the work. The knowledge about the title limits our imagination and guides what we receive from the work.

I experiment very often, particularly when I am visiting a museum or gallery to see new work. First I just look at the painting, I make my own vision, my own story about the painting and afterwards I look at the title and the description. Very often, especially in the case of modern art, I interpret the work in a way that does not reflect the intention of the artist.

My new painting tells a story, a true story, one that happened in the Garden of Lyalls Cottage.

Our neighbours have a cat. This cat is a hunter and a killer. They call him Tabby, which is obvious because he is a tabby cat; a real Mackerel tabby cat.  I like him very much, although he can be stubborn from time to time, especially when he needs attention. He visits me sometimes in my studio, jumps on the arm-chairs, looks at me for a while and then falls asleep and purrs.

In our garden grows a Smoketree which grows to about 5 metres high and has beautiful red/orange/purple leaves. The Cotinus Coggygria (Latin name) contrasts magnificently with all the greenery that surrounds it.

Once I found a bird close to the Smoketree, unfortunately he was dead. Only the beak, the eyes, something that originally could be called a head and some feathers were left as the rest has been eaten. It seemed to me that it was a black bird.

This inspired my new painting: “The true story of the cat, the tree and the bird”. The cat is a surreal giant cat, as ultimately he is the victor and dominates the story. The tree is only a blabbering witness to the events, and as for the bird… We should respect the bird with silence.

The true story of the Cat, the Tree and the Bird

I would like to spend my life gazing at the stars up in the sky wondering about the cosmos,

the beginning and the end, the sense and the nonsense, about being, about invisible and visible….

about millions questions without answers.

A nice dream - 2008