ARTIST’S STATEMENT

This series of linocuts has been created in reaction to violence: gender-based and hate crimes against minorities. I use both compositional and figurative dramatizations to express emotions: the physical and emotional trauma, resilience and perseverance. I combine printmaking with quilting, stitchery, and mixed media as a means to draw and communicate. For instance, blood-red sewing machine tracks echo the look of the military tank tracks that invaded some cities at the onset of Martial Law in Poland. Stylistically, my works echo German expressionism and cave painting. My interest in the competition between positive and negative space has resulted in images that do not quickly disclose themselves, but require time to interpret them.

BIO

Kazmierczak is a printmaker, book artist, and graphic designer who emigrated from Poland in 1990. She is a fellow of the Polish Ministry of Culture and Art (1987/88). She earned a PhD in Educational Policy Studies, an M.F.A. in Graphic Design, and an M.A. in Art Education from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her research interest has been in the psychology of image-making. Kazmierczak taught art and design at a university level for nearly 20 years. For seven years, she was head of the Illustration Program at the University at Buffalo, NY.

Kazmierczak has specialized in art making as a means for healing, empowerment, and self-expression. She founded and managed an art program at a shelter for survivors of domestic and sexual violence in Illinois (2003-08) and organized traveling exhibitions of survivors’ art. Her prints and artist’s books are in public collections of the National Library in Warsaw, Poland; the Holocaust Museum at Majdanek, Poland; the Rare Book Collections in Europe and universities in the U.S. Kazmierczak is a Treasurer of Pittsburgh Society of Artists.

1. Patience
linocut on rice paper quilted on cotton, sheer, cheesecloth, silk, cardboard letters, thread
Size: 12.5 x 9.5 inches
2005

2. Moonlight Forest
linocut on rice paper, lace, sheer
Size: 11 x 11 inches
2005

3. Violence Begets Violence
collaged linocut on canvas, fiber, supersculpey, metal, feather
Size: 28 x 22 inches
2019

4. Prayer for Peace
collaged linocut on canvas, sheer, moriki paper, supersculpey
Size: 28 x 22 inches
2018