Natasza Mirak
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Natasza Mirak, featured in AQ Volume V, is the artistic pseudonym of Kamila Szadaj, an award-winning artist born in Poland. She is a graduate of the Wrocław Academy of Fine Arts E. Geppert in Wrocław, where she graduated with distinction in 2001. Since then, she has been exhibiting her work internationally. From 2007 to 2009, she conducted classes with students at the same Academy in the field of graphic design. She lives and works in Wrocław (Poland, Europe).
In her work, she is interested in the relationship between a person's roles and their intimate needs. Age, gender, religion, origin, family, social structure, or geopolitical situation entail specific expectations with which a person is confronted. The need for decision-making or passivity arises. The artist believes that her paintings portray this moment—before inner doubt and indeterminacy—and that she shows the mechanism of confusion and premonition, hesitation and certainty, shame and boldness. The duality that accompanies her constantly and the stepping out of cultural roles provides an opportunity to look at the consequences.
https://nataszamirak.com
What inspired you to become an artist, and how did you decide to commit to this path?
I have been painting intermittently since I was two years old. The need to create is natural to me; I was doing it before I understood anything. Creative activity has always calmed me down. It is still a kind of meditation; it takes me out of current affairs, regenerates me emotionally, develops my inner narrator, inspires me, and new ideas appear while working. It's a perpetual motion machine.
Could you share the story or concept behind your recent work?
Lately, in my work, I have been looking intensely at the issue of social roles imposed on us. I have always had an element of non-conformity to the external expectations among which I grew up in communist Poland. Examples of conditions that I have never been able to understand include being forced to work in a place designated by the socialist state, unrealistic expectations of women such as running a home, cooking for a husband, taking care of children, gainful employment, and on top of that, beautiful and enticing appearance. Even as a child, I saw the absurdity of what awaited me, and this created the need to contest the reality I found.
What was the most challenging part of your path so far? How are you navigating this obstacle?
The biggest challenge for me is my inner need to develop my painting skills and technique. I set high expectations for myself, and it interests, drives, and motivates me. I am inspired by the old Dutch masters. In my work, I use classical oil techniques to talk about contemporary problems. I believe that such a formal procedure allows one to look at humanity in a universal way.
What role does experimentation and exploration play in your artistic practice?
They are indispensable. I do archaeology regarding the way I paint, study paintings in museums, albums, and books about the painting techniques of the old masters. At the same time, I incorporate new media into my work, such as fabric or sewing machine-stitched paper. I combine these two approaches.
Do you have any start or stop rituals before creating?
It always starts with a thought or mood that is triggered by a thought or a situation that happened to me. I process this into a language of symbols that I can use to create an image. When I paint it, I evoke the original emotional state that I put myself in the mood for that situation, and it goes on its own.
What message do you hope your art conveys to the world?
I would like politics to interfere less in our individual lives. I would like us to remove divisions between people instead of creating them. I would like us to be more inclined to self-reflection.
Share a mantra or favorite quote that keeps you going.
Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can do.
