Kasia Turajczyk » nature

Panta Rhei Has Flown the Nest

Kasia — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 22:56:12 +0000

That title is in some ways metaphorical, but nevertheless it is also literally correct. My Panta Rhei painting has been sold to someone who really loves it. To someone who is also a very nice person. It is a nice feeling to know and to be sure that my paintings are in good hands. Especially something like Panta Rhei, which has been with me for such a long time. I have had a few potential buyers through that time but we never could agree about the price, until now that is.

A few word about this painting:

Among Kasia’s paintings are some which one would not immediately connect with fantasy. However because the composition of some elements cannot be found in the real world, these paintings bring to mind thoughts about surrealism. An example of such a work is Panta Rhei – fairly economical in form, it depicts a seaside landscape with a flying Pelican, projecting a shadow on the sand and there are also wide open doors hanging over the beach. Such paintings show restlessness and tension very clearly; which could be caused by the diversity and variety of the possibile associations which every observer can find inside oneself, dependent upon ones own experience and sensitivity. (From a review by Karolina Jablonska, art curator and art historian)

Farewell Panta Rhei – Nothing is forever.

Panta Rhei - oil on board; 1997

The process of creating an acrylics painting on canvas

Kasia — Sun, 29 May 2011 14:51:43 +0000

Last year during the process of painting my Magnolia acrylics paintings I have been recorded myself. I made a short video document from the fragments I recorded. Every single artist has an own unique style of painting. Some love to paint when they are naked, some needs alcohol in their blood, while others prefer a good quality joint. I prefer listening to music and talking to myself. Dependent of the sort of art I create sometimes I sit, sometimes stay up, sometimes I run or walk around the work I create. Large abstract paintings or collages often lie on the floor or on the grass in the garden and I run as a crazy bull around them. From time to time I lie on the floor or kneel down.

Here in this short video I am just sitting in the chair in my summer studio, the canvas is in the easel and I behave very normal and conventional. Sometimes I am normal.

Science, video and the Boltzmann Paradox

Kasia — Wed, 25 May 2011 11:20:17 +0000

On May, 11th 2011 I was invited by Tiverton Art Society to give a talk about art, video and the Boltzmann Paradox. The society has more than 200 members and is a very active one. Tiverton is an ancient borough and market town in the county of Devon, and the major town in the Mid Devon. It was a real pleasure to be there and to talk to the audience about quantum physics, my own art and art in general, and to present some of my videos. I even read one of my poems, the one about a physicist of course, the Nobel prize winner Niels Bohr.

I had some concerns before the talk, associated with my accent and random blockages of my memory; especially as I am tired (actually I am in a state of chronic fatigue related to my ME condition). I also wanted to talk about quantum physics, thermodynamics and the Boltzmann Paradox in a language in which I still struggle to express myself in the way I want to. When I talk in English I switch my brain into think-in-English mode, which is the way to master a foreign language. But still too often I am sucked in by antimatter, which tries to destroy my brain, confuse my memory and makes it impossible to have an intellectual, sophisticated chat. I find myself missing words, idioms, sayings, humorous expressions, knowledge of complicated grammatical structures. It is a matter of exercises, persistency and strong will, I know that. I am too old and I am lazy, I guess. J) However, I think everything came out successfully. The audience reaction was lively, and I thought they showed a real enthusiasm. I was talking about myself, my art, my videos, and physics and Boltzmann Creatures of course. I brought two big abstract paintings and a few new ones from the “Peter Pan” series. I was myself, spontaneous and a ‘little crazy’ as usual.

The Brits in general are very nice and polite people. Think about it for a moment; all the foreigners using and murdering their beautiful language and then the Brits listening and smiling and trying to understand the others. It is quite an achievement. They have my full admiration for their patience and calm. Definitely the majority of the audience preferred watching art videos and videos about my art than listening to my talk about quantum physics. (Maybe they were bored with my accent and my English!?) I wanted to talk more about thermodynamics and entropy but it was unanimously decided to watch all three videos about the Boltzmann Creatures, Betelgeuse and Mintaka instead of being educated about the laws of physics. Well, the perception of art proceeds in a completely different way than the understanding of the laws of physics. You have to force and to strain your grey cells to understand what quantum physics is all about. On the other hand it is surprising, to me at least, that we don’t try to understand the laws of physics more. As if the world we live in wasn’t extremely complicated. Just think about it for a second. Everything that surrounds us is related to one or another law of physics.

My talk was recorded. From the long video I chose the most interesting and amusing parts, from my point of view of course. Here is a short video part 1:

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Kasia in the Countryside

Kasia — Tue, 24 May 2011 11:12:13 +0000

I created a video/slideshow to present my art from the last two years. Paintings, collages, installations, small sculptures all created in Devon, in Dunchideock. And of course lots of nature, black swans, trees, a cat and nice music.

Kasia in the Countryside

The Tree tales Series – My friend Oak

Kasia — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 13:35:24 +0000

I love trees; I guess it is impossible not to love them. They are the silent guards of human history, both collective and private memories. If they only could talk…they would be able to tell us the most incredible stories, stories beyond our imagination.

My new series is about the trees “The Tree tales”. The trees from my paintings are telling stories: sad, cheerful, dramatic, funny, horrible, disgusting, beautiful…sometimes real, sometimes surreal, and sometimes fantastic……conform our lives, lies, black swans and quantum physics.

Yes, I am back into the figurative style. I never painted trees before because I found them so perfect in reality that every copied image looked very kitschy to me. It is a fact, that nature in its essence is perfect; most of the landscape paintings, that are trying to copy nature, are only a bad imitations of it. The most important aspect is to make an own interpretation of the subject and add also personal emotions into it.

So, what changed my mind, why this Tree Series? The most important aspect is being very close to nature, being surrounded by an incredible beautiful landscape, and observing the structure of the nature every day. Another aspect is my different approach to painting the nature. I don’t just paint the trees, my trees are the context of my work and the subject of it, both.

And most important, my trees are telling stories…and if you listen very carefully you can hear them. Most of us are living in an urban environment, in big cities, far away from forests, woodlands and trees. Most of us aren’t surrounded by ageing, ancient oaks, aches, elms, birches, maples, English yews and all the other distinguished, sometimes frivolous beautiful trees. I am just giving back; I am very fortunate to live in Devon, surrounded by beautiful, often very old trees.

My favourite tree is the oak. It looks like an old, wise Knight, or maybe a transcendental Wizard with its gnarled branches. My oak, is a very old one from Dunchideock. It is telling a story about ancient battles, lovers trysts and quarrels. Everything is in there if you pause long enough to tune in to this magnificent time portal.

"My Friend Oak is telling a story, again" – acrylics on canvas, 2010

Inspired by the colours of Devon

Kasia — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 19:15:51 +0000

My first 17 months of living in the country, in a real village have been a wonderful experience and bore lots of wonderful paintings, collages, installation and even small sculptures. The nature of Devon inspired me to be very creative with materials and to experiment with unusual topics for me. I hope it will move me forward to discover new possibilities for the surface, texture, patterns of my paintings and to invent new original genres.

What are the inspirations for my new work?. Definitely the colours and the sounds of the garden of Lyalls Cottage and the fields and meadows around Dunchideock, of Devon; the animals in and around the garden; the hills behind the river Exe in the East and de shapes of Exmoor in the North, the shooting stars at the cloudless sky in the night and all the others inexpressible sensational impulses and invisible mystical creatures.

I am so happy to be here, Devon is a wonderful spot to live!

Here are the images of my new collages and installations. I will make a separate post about the sculptures.

collage canvas prints

Garden Art Wall Installation – CD's

Kasia — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 23:00:50 +0000

During the Devon Open Studios I am inviting my visitors to take part in the process of producing an installation. It is an Art Wall Installation in my opinion. It is a large wall board, painted in different colours from black to white and all the nuances of white-grey, grey-grey and black grey. I prepared lots of mini-art works- painted old CD's. They are painted in different colours and they have different surfaces. Some of them smooth, some of them rough. All of them unique. Some of them ugly and some of them very nice. I divided the Art Wall Installation – the board in two parts: the Beautiful one and the Ugly one. We all love judging. We don't like to be judged but we do love to judge other people and other things. We should not do it. It is very bad actually, but we just do it. In the case of my installation I am asking people to make a judgement about a small piece of art work I made. I ask them to make a choice between what they think is beautiful and what they think is ugly, between nice and not nice, between what they like and what they don't like. The reactions are very interesting, some of the visitors don't want to choose an ugly CD. They just refuse to do so. Some of them are saying that such a concept as ugly don't not exist in art. Others I guess don't want to be unpleasant to me, the artist. And me, I am just curious about the taste of people, what they do like and what they do not. What is ugly for them and what is beautiful. I don't know if I will be able to come to an eventual intelligent conclusion at the end of this experiment. But I do know that I am very curious about the final result.

Here are some photos after a couple of days.

Press Release – Devon Open Studios 2010

Kasia — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 09:15:02 +0000

Artist in Exeter/Dunchideock to take part in Devon Open Studios

Kasia Turajczyk
Lyalls Cottage, Dunchideock, Exeter, EX6 7YD

http://gallery.kasiaturajczyk.com

Phone: 01392 833904

Established Dunchideock artist, Kasia Turajczyk will be inviting guests into her studio/local gallery to view her new work this year in the forthcoming county-wide arts event, Devon Open Studios.

It is the largest showcase for artists in the county and Kasia Turajczyk will be joining over 260 artists opening their doors for 16 days from 4th –19th of September. Kasia will be taking part for the first time and is looking forward to her contribution to the event held at her studio in the garden of Lyalls Cottage and her gallery within the cottage.

Kasia began painting as a child, and for her becoming a successful artist is the realization of a life-long passion. She has lived in several countries with different political systems; diverse cultures, different languages, peoples, and landscapes and that fact has had a big influence on her development and growth as an artist and as a person.

Kasia works in diverse fields of art: paintings, installations, collages, fantasy art and new media. When you visit her studio you will be able to see examples of such work, together with recent abstract and modern figurative collages with a hint of surrealism, inspired by the nature of Devon. Nature is also a source of raw materials for Kasia's art, which enables her to achieve some very interesting structural effects.

She will also be showing some new installations entitled Personalities, created from old CD’s, acrylics and recycled materials (weather permitting in the open air of the garden). Kasia will also be inviting her visitors to take part in the process of producing an installation. She will be providing such an environment during the Open Studio weeks to make it possible for visitors to work together with her, and to have the opportunity to talk to her directly about the creative process.

Kasia Turajczyk is looking forward to the show and hopes that Devon Open Studios will help raise her profile. In 2009 over 30,000 visits were recorded, an almost two fold increase from the year before. Free to the public, the event provides a unique chance to see a wide variety of new work.

Devon Open Studios produces a comprehensive guide to help visitors plan their own art trail and combine browsing art with enjoyment of the county’s fantastic scenery. Free copies of the guide are now available at tourist information centres, libraries, galleries, and hotels. The most prominent place in Dunchideock where the guide will be available is the well known Lord Haldon Hotel (10 minutes walk from Kasia Turajczyk’s studio -http://www.lordhaldonhotel.co.uk).

The Blueberrry Fantasy - acrylics on canvas

Heaven is in my mind!

Kasia — Fri, 14 May 2010 22:49:39 +0000

Heaven and hell have first of all a symbolic meaning for me. I was born into a family with Catholic traditions (with the exception of a few atheists and one Buddhist). I was born in a country where for many being Catholic is the status quo. For various individuals in Poland being a part of the Roman Catholic family is a criterion of being Polish too. If I was born in India in a Buddhist family hell and heaven would be for me just abstract, meaningless words.

I remember as a child, I had to attend Sunday masses. I didn’t like them; it was for me a kind of torment, literally and metaphorically. Probably I was very afraid to be confronted again and again, by the fearful personifications of God presented by the clerics. I was terrified to be punished for all the sins that I hadn’t committed yet, but would in the future. There was no escape from that. Even the angels had a kind of apocalyptic dimension. When lying in bed, I often thought about my “personal” Angel. I had no doubt about the fact that somewhere an Angel was watching me. I had one big problem. I wasn’t sure if it was a good Angel or a bad one. Maybe it was a hellish one and not a holy one. I had a picture of an angel hanging above my bed. He was beautiful, with blue eyes and white hair and a very, very distressing smile. And so it was that my Angel was gazing at me, as if he knew that one day I would betray him and leave him. When at the age of 12 I had rebelled and had declared that “I don’t want to believe and I categorically deny any belief in such a cruel, evil, bad god and I do not want to be frightened any more of hell, devils and original sin” I had terrible dreams for the first months afterwards. In my dreams I was somewhere close to the church. It was a big Gothic church, and it was always night. I was attacked by devils, they tore me, hurt me; wild winds had jerked me into the square in front of the church, darkness and a terrible fear occupied my dreams. That was a horrible experience, a nightmare, but even more it cemented my decision that God, who is haunting me, punishing me, and scaring me, will not be my god.
And so it happened, that I became somehow atheist, somewhat Buddhist, a follower of my personal faith; all together my religion is a kind of eclecticism.

Since that time I have been trying to avoid that hell on earth, in my daily life, in my relationships with others, but also in my thoughts and feelings. Hell and Heaven, we create them for ourselves, here on this planet, in our lives, our thoughts, feelings, beliefs, hatreds, and in relationships.
Hell and Heaven are also created for us by nature, life, and the condition of being homo sapiens, something that is unavoidable; we can only accept it.

After this very long introduction it is time for introducing my new painting.

This is an installation composed of four panels, titled “Heaven Is In My Mind”. It belongs to the “My Brain” series.
There is a lot of blue, gold, purple, dark plum, grains of all sorts, and recycled stuff.
It is large: 80 cm x 80 cm.

The Sensation of Walking by Kasia B. Turajczyk

Kasia — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 22:06:16 +0000

The Sensation of Walking

I learned to walk and I have walked
And I still walk…
Do I actually understand
How fortunate I am?
I can walk!
I can walk without help
And I walk using my own two legs
No prostheses, no walking stick
No artificial supports at all
Just my intention and my legs
My brain and my legs.
Usually I don’t think
About this fact, I don’t feel
This truth in such a way every day.
But it just so happens
That I am thinking about it now.
It seems so natural – walking.
Except in those moments when I see
David with his two prosthetic legs
And when I visit Ela
Her legs haven't moved for 15 years.
Then I feel how lucky I am.
I know I am independent
No diabetes and no MS
No accidents, no wars,
No natural disasters
I walk, I run, I jump, and
I trample on my left foot with my right foot
I move my body without begging for help
I can run away,
I can walk out whenever I wish.
Just a black swan phenomenon and
The unpredictability of luck.
It is the sensation
Of my fortunate perfection.
I am walking.
These are my feet.

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