Q. Could you tell a little about yourself.Well I do not know what I could tell you. Should I describe myself, my character? my age? I am 44, male, 170 cm tall, brown eyes, bald, some people say I look younger. I am very creative, open minded, have a huge cognitive flexibility, I see things from many points of view, I am brilliant ( as is stated in my Rorschach test!) but also inclined to be depressive, to withdraw from the world, feel insecure, anxious.
I was mobbed and almost killed by psychopathic office workers who constitute the majority of the society. I do not want to work at any office anymore! Next time they would kill me.
I am pretty good at foreign languages, I speak German almost without an accent.
One of my hobbies is growing cacti. I have hundreds of cacti, I spend ours caring for them, (kiss the cacti. ) One of my favorites plants is for example Astrophytum asterias. I studied German philology (Franz Kafka!) at Jagiellonian University in Cracow and painting at Academy of fine arts in Cracow.
Q. Could you tell us a little about Krakow Poland.My Cracow is a place where there is an old university I studied at and an old fine arts academy I studied at. There live people which are my colleagues. It is dirty, very expensive, I can not afford to live there now.
Cracow from a tourist guide is a city of a great history it is the old capital of Poland. Its rich history starts around the year 1200. There is one of the oldest universities in Europe there (Jagiellonian University, Copernicus studied there). In Cracow, on the left bank of the Vistula River, there is a hill called WAWEL. It is made of Jurassic limestone. Within the rocks there are numerous karst forms, and caves. A medieval legend has evolved about one of them, telling that it was reportedly inhabited by a dragon beaten by prince Krak.
The first historical rulers of Poland chose Wawel for one of their seats. Now there is a renaissance castle there with graves of polish kings buried in the cathedral belonging to the castle.
Q. You started to paint at the age of 35 because of a Great Jungian Dream? Could you explain this dream and why it had such a great affect on you?In this dream (one of most important dreams in my life) I drew precious stones out of a black-red water-lava lake under the surface of the earth. When I poured boiling water on them they turned into my paintings and sculptures. At that time I worked in an office and was an Upie, consuming goods of all kind. I was lost. I had to find something else. I was dying. My soul was dying. I started to drink. I was fired from this office. I recalled the dream I had a year ago. Almost dead I started to decorate my flat. I started to use paint and brushes. This is how it started. After a few months of training I even passed very difficult entry examinations at the Fine Art Academy in Cracow!
Q. What are peoples reactions when they view your artwork?Most of them do not like it. It does not look like as if it was produced by a machine. Most people can stand only the perfect production of machines. All they possess was produced by machines. They hate the imperfection, the dilettantism and the amateurishness of my works. The Professors at the Fine Arts Academy hated it. They called me shameless. In the end I was booted from the school.
Q. You have a series based on geometry? Could you explain the importance of geometry?My works from this series are not based on geometry. They are geometry. It began with one of my great Jungian dreams in which I caught a triangular fish with a threefold angle. This geometry is not a part of math, as we know it from the school. Dead and describing nothing. Empty, dry, dead, abstract, cold formulas that no one but scientists needs. They never told me at school what math was good for. Since I did not have a swimming pool I did not want to know how many gallons/liters water it contained. They (teachers, educational system) destroyed my natural knowledge of geometry but thirty years later it came back! It is MY PERSONAL GEOMETRY and not geometry that was appropriated by state, clerks, scientists, politics and all that shit. They appropriated not only geometry but all other parts of the world. Through the educational system you are separated and disinherited from experiencing the world directly.
Q. Can you talk about your creative process?There is almost always an important dream in the beginning. I try to depict the most important part of it, mostly a symbol which would be very private, bound tightly to my private biography, my development as person. I have to understand the new symbol and I like it when others understand it to. I do not want my works to be mere fiction, another beautiful but empty stylistics. There has to be an objective part to it. I am not producing entertainment I am producing knowledge, as one of polish contemporary artists (Artur Zmijewski) put it. I want to speak as many languages as possible at the same time.
Q. Do you have a favorite piece that you have made?There are many, it is very difficult to choose. The most IMPORTANT is to me: Soli(j)anna – my coat of arms which I obtained in a another Jungian dream. A drunk guy who looked pretty like young Dionisos said to me: I like your crossed pickaxes, then came a women who brought a painting with two seated females on it, leaning on each other with their backs, their backs were crossed partially creating a sign reminding me of two mutually transgressing brackets. Much later on I found a similar sign on the grave of Jacob Boehme, one of the greatest visionaries (his brackets are not transgressing though). Having a coat of arms I am a knight and a noble man now.
Q. Are there any artists that influenced you?
First of all it was Paul Klee to influence me, he was the OPENING artist to me. I loved his fragile COLOR, his fragile forms and the vast of techniques and materials he used. His art seemed accessible, opening, inviting other people to create. Klee "allowed" other people to be creative in a playful way (There are lots of other artists whose work is the opposite, is excludes others, makes them unable to create, forbids creation, makes them to mere passive consumers of their art). I thought I could paint in a similar way Klee did. That was the beginning. Then came Matisse SHAMELESS COLOR, Picasso – SHAMELESS ECLECTICISM, Dubuffet – a shameless REBEL, quite OPPOSITE to art made at fine arts academies at that time, Hockney- pretty close to GRAPHICS, with drawing as an important part of his oeuvre, Clemente with his SHAMELESS extremely PERSONAL MYTHOLOGY.
Q. Any favorite artists?Contemporary: Clemente, Kiki Smith, Louise Bourgeois, Robert Gober, Laurie Anderson.
Classical modern: Klee, Matisse, Kirchner, Hockney, Kitaj,
I do not like Luc Tuymans – the painter of death!
Q. What advice would you give to fellow artists?In your creation (dialog) there is only God and you and no others. There are no art critics (they are going to die sooner or later), art consumers (they are going to die sooner or later). Creation is one of your most intimate affairs. This is one of the biggest mysteries. First of all it has to be very important to you, to your soul, in order to survive in this world. It is not an affair of state or institutions and it never was. Culture clerks and politics close their offices and go home to watch the ball game.
Q. Are you participating or drawn to anything outside the art world?Cacti, I am drawn to cacti, residences in Mollorca J , Chinese food, Italian food, (I am pretty good at cooking)
Q. Any plans in the future?
Exhibiting in New York, becoming internationally known artist, meeting Clemente in NY, moving to Cracow again, becoming independent, big studio J
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