Interview with Ewa Zeller
Could you share with us how your educational background in Museum Science and Preservation at Nicolaus Copernicus University and Warsaw Politechnics has influenced your transition to becoming a painter?
I completed very interesting and successful studies at Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, Poland, at the Faculty of Fine Arts, Department of Conservation and Museum Studies. It was the only such faculty in Poland and the second one of its kind in the GDR. We even had a student exchange with them. The scope of studies involves deep knowledge of the combined fields of art history, history, architecture, construction techniques, drawing, and conservation theory, along with elements of urban planning. Thanks to systemic trips, I became familiar with art in Europe, as well as the theories created to preserve the beauty of times past. We were being prepared to create catalogs of artworks and scientific dissertations. We had typical art classes and practiced architectural drawing by observing works of art. This process was very natural for me, especially since I have been drawing since I was a child. My studies in Poland allowed me to become familiar with the canons of aesthetics of world painting. With unconcealed curiosity, I watched the work of students from the neighboring field of fine arts—their paintings, graphics, and other projects. It was very inspiring, and I envied them. I think that the most important thing was my knowledge and exposure to the painting styles and techniques of painting from all possible periods of existence. Painting has always made a great impression on me.
During your time at the State Office for Preservation and Rerearch of Historical Monuments and Heritage in Białystok, what were some of the key learnings or experiences that have shaped your approach to art?
I’ll start by saying that my hometown, Białystok, is located on the border with Lithuania, Belarus, and Ukraine, and formerly Russia. It is a true cultural melting pot, where various languages and dialects meet, along with architecture, art, cuisine, and religions—Catholics, Orthodox, Christians, Muslims, Jews. It is a land where the East intertwines with Western culture. During my 16 years of professional work, I had the opportunity and, at the same time, the necessity to explore dozens of works of art and architecture, including secular and religious painting from all denominations and eras that existed here. It was a fascinating journey through techniques and styles, materials, mediums, intentions, themes, and meaning.
How has your work in the preservation of historical monuments in Poland influenced your artistic themes and choice of subjects in painting?
Working in this office means not only dealing with monuments but also having meetings with people, owners of artworks, and their users. Sometimes they were people from outside the industry, often clergy and priests or officials. Everyone had their own story. Meetings with people enrich and open the mind. Conversations opened my spirituality and fueled my curiosity about the world. I paint portraits, landscapes, floral and symbolic scenes. I encountered these topics in my professional work after graduation. My style can be described as representative. I don’t paint abstractions, even though it is considered the most complicated technique. I try to show the world around me using a traditional painting style. But the image cannot be a copy, which has already been done by many in this way. Painting should arouse emotions.
Since moving to the United States in 2003, how do you think your art has evolved and what challenges did you face in finding your own style of expression in a new cultural environment?
There is a theory that everything civilizations have created, they created from fear—fear against the elements and metaphysical fear. My path to painting is a story about a difficult journey to self-discovery, about the need and attempt to come to terms with my fears, desires, and deal with my own emotions. My world in Poland was a world of fear and a sense of guilt that I am running away from a difficult reality. And the state that creates it is a peace that I learned in the USA. It’s a sense of security. My painting is half intuitive and half learned through exposure to art and art history during my studies and work with monuments. In the USA, I met many wonderful painting teachers from whom I studied. Here I could paint according to their instructions and listen to my intuition. Intuition can only be heard in emotional silence.
You work with various mediums like oil, acrylic, pastel and watercolor. What draws you to these mediums, and how do you decide which one to use for a particular piece?
These are traditional painting techniques that are easy for me to use. I don’t mix techniques. I often paint outdoors, taking oil or watercolor with me, and pastels as a spare. The choice of technique is a matter of course without any thought; intuitively, I reach for a brush or a crayon. However, I love to paint portraits in oil techniques because they offer a lot of possibilities. Oil provides opportunities to obtain additional planes and unexpected exposure. Oil gives softness and plasticity.
You’ve mentioned being inspired by artists from the “Young Poland” movement and European masters like Cezanne and Van Gogh. How do these influences manifest in your work?
The style in art at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries is Art Nouveau (secessio in Latin, secesja in Polish). It is a departure from previous trends. I am close to the features or elements that were commonly used at that time: flowing wave lines, stylized plant motifs, asymmetry, pastel color. The richness of plant motifs and their symbolism, reference to mythology and folklore culture, symbolism in landscapes and portraits, metaphors. I am constantly impressed by the creativity and work of painters such as Alfons Karpiński, Jan Stanisławski, Edward Okuń, Konrad Krzyżanowski, Józef Mehoffer, and other representatives of this era in Europe: Paul Cezanne—the great impressionist, teacher of other unforgettable artists, and also Van Gogh. People often compare my irises to his works. My painting is based on experiencing something visually and translating it with paint into the world perceived by all senses. Painting puts me on the edge of visual thinking. When realism itself appears, I know that I have to put down the brush. Pure realism is only good at a certain stage of the workshop; then my painting does not need me, but pure feeling.
Your work often focuses on natural subjects and explores color relationships. Can you elaborate on how you approach these elements in your paintings?
Wassily Kandinsky (1866 – 1944) in his treatise "On Spirituality in Art" wrote that "Color is the key, the eye is the hammer. The soul is the piano with many chords. The artist is a hand that, by touching it, causes the soul to vibrate automatically." I was shaped by my childhood and youth in Poland—the edge of the city, meadows and fields, the smell of wildflowers, poppies, and morning glories. These are gardens next to wooden, traditionally built houses, creating winding streets. These are pine forests and large chestnut trees. Always sunny, lots of light on the streets. I don’t remember cloudy days. I remember bright, full colors. Color is a force that precisely affects the soul. Whereas in the USA, I participated in many open plain-air workshops in NJ or NY. Natural lighting, sun, nature, and observation of plant details are the key to my painting. Peter Schlesinger (1948 – 2016), director, sculptor, painter, and photographer, learned from David Hockney (b. 1937) that: "The science of painting comes through doing it. This is an ethical pleading. It is about looking and observing."
As an artist with a deep European background, how do you balance traditional European styles with the modern realities of the New World in your art?
In the creative process, the most important thing is the process of becoming independent. In painting, the artist is alone. And talent also needs to be developed. Józef Czapski (1896 – 1993), a Polish author, critic, and painter (influenced by Cezanne), wrote: "Realism or anti-realism does not matter. What counts is the Truth. All methods in painting are sacred only if they are infinitely necessary. All methods are signs, unless they are the sediment of infinite necessity." Wassily Kandinsky again: "If an artist has the highest sensitivity to composition and color, then he is a true poet. And this is the last essentiality...The colors on the painter’s palette stimulate a double effect: a purely physical effect on the eyes, just like the joy of impressions when we eat delicacies. This effect can be more profound because it causes a vibration of the soul or an internal resonance."
You’ve described painting as your “joy and delight” and a means to “ survive the chaos of the twenty-first century”. Could you expand on this philosophy and what painting personally means to you?
At a time when my perception of the world was maturing, my home country was experiencing social unrest, upheavals, and an attempt to break out of the traumatic circle of influence of the communist Soviet Union. Everywhere there was confusion, fear, frustration, and uncertainty about what the next day would bring. I then started my museum studies. It was 1980. I had to focus on art history. We drew a lot as students. It balanced me against what was happening in my homeland. We also took an active part in the boycott of the government, siding with the Soviet Union. I started a family, which then fell apart. The memorable year was 1989 and the fight for a free Poland and the Solidarity movement. My economic situation forced me to go to the USA. I missed my children here, and I returned to painting as if to paradise. In this sense, my painting saved me.
Looking forward, what are your aspirations as an artist? Are there any new themes, techniques or projects you are particularly excited to explore?
All my life I have been fascinated by the metaphysical world, and art was its metaphor for me. Art is about contact with the unknown, also about fantasizing. On empathizing with other people and on experiencing all aspects of life. Some of them can only be presented symbolically. Painting is a path, a path in me that leaves a trace. It is a meeting with Myself and Infinity. I would like my portraits to talk about the hidden fate and secrets of the psyche of their characters. It would be a compliment to me if my works were perceived from the point of view of a shaman rather than a doctor. I expect a soul in painting. I paint for clarity and understanding that "happening" is not the most important thing in this world. I am currently working on a series of symbolic paintings referring to the Renaissance works of Andrea della Robbia. Also, I am interested in the new technique of monotype.
