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Zuzanna Pieczyńska’s Paintings Of Loss

Jessica: When did you start with this series?

Zuzanna: I started this series as my Masters Diploma. I read that every year in Poland approximately 20,000 people go missing. I was struck by that fact. It’s as if a small city got completely wiped off a map. I wanted my graduation project to be about something important, something that moves me. That’s why I chose the topic of disappearances. I cooperated with the Itaka Foundation, the biggest non-governmental organisation in Poland which works in the field of missing persons. I not only painted real people that had gone missing but also tried to show the trauma and difficult emotions that the missing person’s loved ones have to endure.

From the ‘Each year in Poland a small town disappears’ series:
Yolie, 2021
Zuzanna Pieczyńska
Oil on canvas, 100 x 160 cm | 39 x 63 in

Jessica: When did you start with this series?

Zuzanna: I started this series as my Masters Diploma. I read that every year in Poland approximately 20,000 people go missing. I was struck by that fact. It’s as if a small city got completely wiped off a map. I wanted my graduation project to be about something important, something that moves me. That’s why I chose the topic of disappearances. I cooperated with the Itaka Foundation, the biggest non-governmental organisation in Poland which works in the field of missing persons. I not only painted real people that had gone missing but also tried to show the trauma and difficult emotions that the missing person’s loved ones have to endure.

From the ‘Each year in Poland a small town disappears’ series:
Yolie, 2021
Zuzanna Pieczyńska
Oil on canvas, 100 x 160 cm | 39 x 63 in

Jessica: When did you start with this series?

Zuzanna: I started this series as my Masters Diploma. I read that every year in Poland approximately 20,000 people go missing. I was struck by that fact. It’s as if a small city got completely wiped off a map. I wanted my graduation project to be about something important, something that moves me. That’s why I chose the topic of disappearances. I cooperated with the Itaka Foundation, the biggest non-governmental organisation in Poland which works in the field of missing persons. I not only painted real people that had gone missing but also tried to show the trauma and difficult emotions that the missing person’s loved ones have to endure.

From the ‘Each year in Poland a small town disappears’ series:
Yolie, 2021
Zuzanna Pieczyńska
Oil on canvas, 100 x 160 cm | 39 x 63 in

Jessica: When did you start with this series?

Zuzanna: I started this series as my Masters Diploma. I read that every year in Poland approximately 20,000 people go missing. I was struck by that fact. It’s as if a small city got completely wiped off a map. I wanted my graduation project to be about something important, something that moves me. That’s why I chose the topic of disappearances. I cooperated with the Itaka Foundation, the biggest non-governmental organisation in Poland which works in the field of missing persons. I not only painted real people that had gone missing but also tried to show the trauma and difficult emotions that the missing person’s loved ones have to endure.

From the ‘Each year in Poland a small town disappears’ series:
Yolie, 2021
Zuzanna Pieczyńska
Oil on canvas, 100 x 160 cm | 39 x 63 in

Jessica: When did you start with this series?

Zuzanna: I started this series as my Masters Diploma. I read that every year in Poland approximately 20,000 people go missing. I was struck by that fact. It’s as if a small city got completely wiped off a map. I wanted my graduation project to be about something important, something that moves me. That’s why I chose the topic of disappearances. I cooperated with the Itaka Foundation, the biggest non-governmental organisation in Poland which works in the field of missing persons. I not only painted real people that had gone missing but also tried to show the trauma and difficult emotions that the missing person’s loved ones have to endure.

From the ‘Each year in Poland a small town disappears’ series:
Yolie, 2021
Zuzanna Pieczyńska
Oil on canvas, 100 x 160 cm | 39 x 63 in

Jessica: Can you describe or talk about the process and how long does it take you to do these pieces?

Zuzanna: It always starts with an idea. I usually know what’s going to be there, and what the composition is going to be like. Then I create a collage. I try to capture the idea best I can, I put together different photographs. It gives me a lot of flexibility as I can create my own reality and change it in whatever way I want. But I still have a reference that allows me to paint realistically.

Sometimes one collage leads to another one. I really like Picasso’s quote who said that “inspiration exists, but it has to find you working.” Sometimes the idea needs to rest though. It needs time to ripen.

Finally I paint and the collage merges into one coherent piece. Painting gives me a whole new range of possibilities and tools. For instance I can create an illusion of movement or change face features. The last step is closing the computer, stepping away from the easel and looking at the painting with a completely objective eye, that is not biased by the collage I made. In the last series one painting usually would take a month to make.

Jessica: Can you describe or talk about the process and how long does it take you to do these pieces?

Zuzanna: It always starts with an idea. I usually know what’s going to be there, and what the composition is going to be like. Then I create a collage. I try to capture the idea best I can, I put together different photographs. It gives me a lot of flexibility as I can create my own reality and change it in whatever way I want. But I still have a reference that allows me to paint realistically.

Sometimes one collage leads to another one. I really like Picasso’s quote who said that “inspiration exists, but it has to find you working.” Sometimes the idea needs to rest though. It needs time to ripen.

Finally I paint and the collage merges into one coherent piece. Painting gives me a whole new range of possibilities and tools. For instance I can create an illusion of movement or change face features. The last step is closing the computer, stepping away from the easel and looking at the painting with a completely objective eye, that is not biased by the collage I made. In the last series one painting usually would take a month to make.

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