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

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

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.

by Kasia B. Turajczyk

Dunchideock, January 2010

by Karolina Jablonska (independent art curator & historian of art)

Kasia Turajczyk belongs to the group of artists for whom art is a kind of sixth sense.
Apart from the fact that they see, hear, taste, smell and are sensitive to touch, they also create. Art for them is not only a cognitive instrument but also a kind of warehouse, inside which they collect experiences; first of all their own experiences, but they also gather the experiences of those near and dear, friends, neighbours and sometimes even enemies. Art also supports their mind; it is a kind of enclosure, within which it is possible to explain that which is impossible. Owing to such a comprehension of art, the creations of Kasia Turajczyk are extremely varied.

One of her forms of creation is painting, and a part of this work could be defined as realistic. In the case of these works of the artist it is not only the realism, but especially the atmosphere – in all of the paintings one can feel a kind of warmth. Not only because of the connection with the sun of southern Europe (visible in some of the landscapes); but also because of the connections with the emotions of the portrayed persons. Landscape paintings are for the artist a kind of specific notebook (diary) of voyages, records of the memories associated with a certain place – a country, a city or a street; it is a challenge for the artist to show the impressions, the atmosphere, of the places they were in. In these realistic works, the artist often uses bright colours, softly overlapping each other. There are some exceptions. One of these is a painting that came into being after a visit to the USA; ‘California Dream’. Although this painting is almost hyper-realistic, the street of San Francisco depicted therein seems entirely unrealistic. It is painted with a firm, courageously arranged colour scheme. An integral part is a red frame, designed by the artist herself. On the inside of the frame are inscriptions : California is a fine place to live if you happen to be an orange (Woody Allen). There is science, logic, reason; there is thought verified by experience. And then there is California (Edward Abbey). The inscriptions are an indication that among Kasia's interests you will not only find painting, but also literature.

The artist is currently writing a book. Its leading heroes are two creatures: Betelgeuse and Mintaka (kind of dragons), born in the nebula of the constellation of Orion. This literary-fantasy tale (as the artist herself calls it) is illustrated by Kasia herself, and contains a multitude of cultural and civilizing forces – well known themes and plots, real as well as imaginary, all mixed together; everything is possible, and this makes the story more interesting.

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.

Nature is a very important part of the artist’s creation. Nature is not only very important in Kasia’s life and in Kasia’s world as a source of beauty and inspiration but also as a source of painting material. Kasia uses in her work leaves, petals, filaments, fruits, small stems from trees, bushes, flowers, weeds, feathers of birds. In some of her abstract paintings she also uses couscous, rice, diverse seeds, grasses and bay leaves. Because of that, she has achieved some very interesting structural effects. But more important than this is the fact that because of using these natural materials she builds a bridge between the so often hermetic world of art (for example the limitation of frames ), and the reality that surrounds us. Again the art helps her ‘to manage’ her fascination with the world. Being surrounded by nature Kasia wants to know it, touch it, analyse it, see how it changes in time, and because she thinks visually, she also uses it in her art.

Kasia Turajczyk is an attentive observer of the world and people, and she demands the same from her audience. Her work “Freedom of thinking, freedom of choice” is a installation consisting of 6 small canvasses. The owner of the installation (the 6 panels) has the freedom to make a choice not only about where to hang the installation, but also how to hang it by composing the 6 small paintings according to their own feelings, character and their own discretion. Maybe the artist will in the near future develop this way of thinking about the process of creating art and will attempt such a work at an exhibition in order to make it possible for the recipients to work with the artist together during the process of seeing/visualising? The likelihood of this happening appears to be good considering that during her exhibition at the Gallery Forum in Lodz Kasia prepared stickers in three colours each indicating: the favourite painting, the second best painting and the third most liked painting and then she asked the guests to mark the paintings according to their own criteria. Due to such an artistic concept the artist showed that art for her is another way of communicating with the world and with people. Art for her is an additional sense, exceptional because it reacts to very different stimuli, and that makes her art so varied and rich, yet always honest.

From Fruit till Fantasy – Art Exhibition

]]> http://blog.kasiaturajczyk.com/2010/01/review-of-my-exhibition/feed/ 1 http://blog.kasiaturajczyk.com/2009/12/my-brain1/ http://blog.kasiaturajczyk.com/2009/12/my-brain1/#comments Thu, 03 Dec 2009 18:06:36 +0000 Kasia http://blog.kasiaturajczyk.com/?p=276 I have always been fascinated by the phenomenon of the human BRAIN, including my own brain.
The brain is the most complex organ in the human body. It produces our every thought, action, memory, feeling and experience of the world. This jelly-like mass of tissue, weighing in at around 1.4 kilograms, contains a staggering one hundred billion nerve cells, or neurons.

More on My Brain – a new abstract series – part I

I have always been fascinated by the phenomenon of the human BRAIN, including my own brain.
The brain is the most complex organ in the human body. It produces our every thought, action, memory, feeling and experience of the world. This jelly-like mass of tissue, weighing in at around 1.4 kilograms, contains a staggering one hundred billion nerve cells, or neurons.

The complexity of the connectivity between these cells is mind-boggling. Each neuron can make contact with thousands or even tens of thousands of others, via tiny structures called synapses. Our brains form a million new connections every second of our lives. The pattern and strength of the connections is constantly changing and no two brains are alike. And if you thought that your brain is highly organised, ordered, logical and it has everything under control you are wrong. You are wrong! In reality, your brain operates on the edge of chaos, very often.

(From New Scientist)

At least my brain does. I am a great example of it, par excellence! I was really glad when one day I found this article in New Scientist (01 April 2009) with the title “Our complex brains thrive on the edge of chaos”. My whole life I have had a chaotic mind: with millions of ideas, inconsistencies, weirdities; thousands of times a second; with several things happening simultaneously; never able to relax my brain; never able to stop my brain thinking (not even when asleep). Often I thought I am not normal, my brain is not normal. Until I read this: “CHAOTIC thinking is rarely a recipe for success, but evidence is emerging that operating at the edge of chaos may drive our brain's astonishing capabilities”
And this (from New Scientist too)

HAVE you ever experienced that eerie feeling of a thought popping into your head as if from nowhere, with no clue as to why you had that particular idea at that particular time? You may think that such fleeting thoughts, however random they seem, must be the product of predictable and rational processes. After all, the brain cannot be random, can it? Surely it processes information using ordered, logical operations, like a powerful computer? Actually, no. In reality, your brain operates on the edge of chaos. Though much of the time it runs in an orderly and stable way, every now and again it suddenly and unpredictably lurches into a blizzard of noise. Neuroscientists have long suspected as much. Only recently, however, have they come up with proof that brains work this way. (New Scientist; 29 June 2009 by David Robson)

Once I went to my GP and told her that I am sure that my brain is making noises, noises I can hear. She looked at me and asked if there was a history of mental diseases in my family and told me that I am mad because the brain doesn’t make noises and can’t make noises. She was just as stupid as a mediocre doctor can be, a person without imagination of course. But in the end I was right of course, here is the evidence. Brain 'Noise' increases With age like the wavy lines and snowy static that dance across old TV screens, your brain generates noise (07 July 2008, New Scientist). Isn’t it great, the best machine in the world, maybe only in our world, our small earthly world, is random and needs and makes and generates noises. Great!

My brain, my chaotic brain inspired me to make these, I think really good, paintings.

The series is called "My Brain" of course.

They are 7 paintings all together (until today at least). I am very proud to present them here. I have divided them into two posts. (My Brain part I and My Brain part II).

Six of them are highly abstract; only one of them is highly illustrative, although with some accents of weirdness. To make the collages I have used lots of weird stuff. The basis for the six abstract paintings are juices from beetroot, blueberry and a few mixed-leaves and beyond that in some of the paintings there are also acrylics.

In the painting ‘My Brain the Day After’ you can even find a piece of a real beetroot. In the painting “I Am Just OK” I only used beetroot juice (first cooked together with some vinegar).

“After the Third Glass of Champagne” has been made using blueberry juice (based on vinegar) and beetroot juice and some red vinegar.

The portrait of “Jim emptying his glass of wine and then making the world bleed” is painted with oil paints and finished with beetroot juice and nuggets of coco flakes.

In the night when I can't sleep

When I am wondering about homo imbibens after my 3 glass of champagne

My brain the day after - 90 cm x 90 cm

My brain series part II

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My studio is situated in the epicentre of the garden, in a certain way that is. It is in the middle of the gardens ‘natural resources” and flora, as well being centred in the macro and micro dimensional sense. Among the trees, bushes, and flowers there are also a huge variety of insects, birds and other animals, both alive and dead. The nearness and the intimacy with the nature has an undeniable affect on my imagination and it so happened that my new born paintings are full of leaves, styles, petals, filaments, fruits, and small stems from trees, bushes, flowers and weeds; but also some parts of dead and alive insects and birds. In some of my old abstract paintings I have already used couscous, rice, diverse seeds, grasses and bay leaves. But it was only incidental and my imagination was limited by the ingredients I had in my kitchen and on my balcony. In Dunchideock, in the garden of Lyalls Cottage I have unbounded forms, colours, pigments, consistencies, structures and odours; the last aspect is only significant for me not for the paintings I am afraid.

At the moment I am still at the stage of experimenting with the natural materials, dried and fresh. I take small cones, flowers, actually everything with interesting constitution and facture. Some of the leaves, styles, fruits and stems I let desiccate and use/ will use them dried. I am thinking of experimenting with natural pigments from fruits, vegetables and leaves. I will keep you updated.

Once, strangely my right hand had became paralysed for around 10 minutes, and I had a weird feeling before and after like someone had acupunctured my hand with 1000 needles. Prior to this sensation I had used lots of orange-red fruits from a plant growing in our garden. Afterwards Jim checked this plant on Wikipedia. It appeared that this woodland plant was known by an abundance of common names including Wild arum, Lords and Ladies, Jack in the Pulpit, Devils and Angels, Cows and Bulls, Cuckoo-Pint, Adam and Eve, Bobbins, Naked Boys, Starch-Root and Wake Robin and is poisonous (especially its attractive orange berries). The berries contain oxalates of saponins which have needle-shaped crystals which irritate the skin, mouth, tongue, and throat, resulting in swelling, breathing difficulties, burning pain, and stomach upsets.
Furthermore I discovered that the juice from blueberries isn’t violet like the berry. It is more like brown-green-dark purple. Only the skins of the blueberries possess the right violet/ dark pigment.

In my new painting on the Barb-Blueberry cat, I used juice from the blueberries, acrylics, stamens from an unknown plant, a piece of a branch from a cypress tree, petals of red and scarlet roses, dried and fresh. You can also find stamens, hairs and petals from a weed called Common Corncockle (also poisonous- “it has been used in folk medicine to treat a range of ills, from parasites to cancer but it may produce chronic or acute, potentially fatal poisoning”).

Back to my painting: the story is obviously about a cat, a lady cat. I have satisfied myself that my Tabby cat shouldn’t be single. And so the Blueberry Barb was borne. (The Barb is from Barbara, women with this name are very close to me).

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

And see me now! I don’t even want to think about living 24 hours, 30 days per months, even 12 months per year in Amsterdam, Vienna or London.  I am just perfectly happy here, even if it rains cats and dogs almost for a month. I am just happy, simply happy, audaciously happy. I am happy because I can be, watch, see, breath, absorb, take up and feel delighted by the nature around me.

Dunchideock, the garden of Lyalls Cottage, the nature of South Devon are the inspiration of my new paintings. The new paintings are combination of my observation of the surrounding nature, my imagination, the happiness of creation, painting, experimenting, and transforming that which surrounds me and how I experience it.

Here are a few of the new acrylic paintings from my series ‘The Secret Garden of Lyalls Cottage’ and “The Shadow of the Invisible in Dunchideock”.

It is raining in Red in Dunchideock - by Kasia B. Turajczyk; 50,2 cm x 40,8 cm; from the series The Secret Garden of Lyalls Cottage

The Tree in the Secret Garden - Kasia B. Turajczyk; 50,8 cm x40,2 cm; from the series The Secret Garden of Lyalls Cottage

The night has fallen down in Dunchideock by Kasia Turajczyk; from the series Shadow of the Invisable

The night has fallen down in Dunchideock II by Kasia B. Turajczyk 50,8 x 40,2 cm; From the series "Shadow of the invisable"