Last week I was aked to share on my blog a little more information about me as an illustrator/painter. I got 5 tricky questions (just kidding) from a fellow artist Patience Brewster . Hopefully the answers are informative and who knows, maybe even interesting :)
1. As a child, do you recall a significant moment when
you felt truly affected or inspired by any particular artwork or artist?
I don't think there was such a specific moment. Almost since I was born I've been constantly surrounded by
books about art and I really
loved to browse through them. My favorite ones were those about Old Masters:
Leonardo da Vinci, Albrecht Dürer and Giovanni Battista Piranesi. I have a mathematical brain, so complicated designs of Piranesi's
prisons and technical thoughts of da Vinci made an enormous impression on me.
2. As an artist, what do you hope to convey with your
work?
I'm fairly introverted, so my personal works are
results of an inner pressure to capture what's happening in my mind. Especially
in the past I loved to retreat into my inner world and imagine wandering
through unknown realms and fantastical buildings. Painting was helping me to
make them more "touchable" and real somehow. It may sound kind
of egoistically, but I wasn't thinking about potential viewers back then.
Nowadays personal projects are largely sidelined in favor of commissioned artworks and in these cases I'm just making the best illustrations I can.
3. What memorable responses have you had to your work?
Most of responses I get are really worth remembering so I
regret I don't have a better memory...
Probably the most (literally) memorable response is a
tattoo based on my "Butterflies Tree", which one brave girl have
on her back. She sent me a photo. Impressive!
In general it's really uplifting when my works are perceived
as useful somehow. For example when they take someone on a trip to imaginative
places and help to forget about real-life problems for a while.
Recently I was really
glad to receive this comment: "There's a stark, grim chill present
in your work that feels almost like Dr. Seuss, Edward Gorey and Edgar Allan Poe
had a baby."
4. What is your dream project?
One of them is related with my personal paintings and
it's kind of secret :)
The second one would be making environment and
architectural designs for some big projects: movies or complex video games. It
would be great to see how, in cooperation with other specialists, ideas
initially captured on two-dimensional sheets of paper are getting alive.
5. What artists, of any medium, do you admire? (Famous
or not!)
My favorite
painter was, is and always will be Zdzisław Beksiński. Actually his paintings
inspired me to study Architecture (just like he did). Moreover on my list there are previously mentioned Old Masters. Finally I must also name Caspar David Friedrich and Lars Lerin due to their technical skills and an unique atmosphere
in their works.
