‘True Colors’ by Ewa Pronczuk-Kuziak
I perceive my display as a collection of stories, reality flashes as if captured with a Polaroid, where each one of them contains its main emotion. When I started my work on the newest series of paintings I knew it would be a continuation of the animals series. However, a single yet serious event in my private life made my work take on a more personal side. A year ago my father got seriously ill. I had to stop my work for some time and focus only on my family. My father’s disease turned my life upside down. Yet, following the first and hardest stages of anger and doubt, there was time for hope and learning. This is when I felt really strongly how beautiful and amazing—but at the same time fragile and unpredictable—life can be. I started to turn my attention mostly to life’s positive aspects and appreciate time that we have with our families and friends, and the quality of all that. In theory, each one of us knows that but we still forget about such simple truths.
The newest ‘True Colors’ series is based on contrasts, featuring both in the form and in the content of my works. In my works I try to show the dualism of life. The name ‘True Colors’ refers to the actual image of people and of life. It tells that reality composes of extremities that cannot function without each other, that there is no light without darkness, no love without suffering, that always a day comes after a night, and peace after a storm. There are flowers beneath armour, and strength beneath delicacy. Hence, next to a symbolic, beautiful, emotional, and at the same time fragile and volatile life, there are works with astonishing love. ‘Sleeping Beauty, ‘If I Had Wings’ and ‘Dreams of Flying’ are about dreams that are so strong they cannot be forgotten, but they are impossible to execute. ‘Shark Study’ and ‘Arctic Hare’ are about why we shouldn’t judge others so quickly.
My most personal painting in the ‘True Colors’ series is ‘The Fragility of Life’. This piece is about how beautiful, colourful, and full of emotions life is, but at the same time how fragile and delicate it can be. Undeniably, it is a gift, yet so easy to lose. It is full of beauty and strength, as well as fragility and uncertainty. It brings sweetness and sorrow, happiness and tears, mixed all together. Most importantly we need to live, to be happy with what we have, but also to remember that we cannot take everything for granted.
I don’t have a favourite painting in this series: I love them all in the same way, but I am really fond of the message coming from ‘Mountain Lullaby’. This one is about dreams. The mountains in this painting’s background, Giewont, is part of the Polish mountain chain, Tatry. The chain’s shaped is like a sleeping knight. In the Polish folklore we have a legend about a sleeping knight that will wake up when Poland faces a real danger. ‘Mountain Lullaby’ is a painting reminding us to remember that you can wake up out of every nightmare, there is a solution to every problem, and that there is always someone looking after us.
The new series evolved with me, eventually forming a collection of stories about life and emotions that can happen to each and every one of us. This is a series of works telling that it is never too late, that there is always hope, that there is sunshine after the rain, and that a day comes after the night. It teaches you that we have an extraordinary will to survive, that we appreciate life, that we are curious what the future will bring, even though we don’t know what will happen the next day. We don’t want to stop dreaming, even when our dreams become unrealistic. Life is beautiful, it rushes, it changes, and no matter how hard it is we need to find beautiful moments in it that are worth living, dancing, and laughing.
Ewa’s wonderful ‘True Colors’ exhibit is currently on view at Corey Helford Gallery. The show runs until the 16th June, 2018.
