Interview

Jul 7

Sylwia Leszczynski

Sylwia was born in Poland and raised in a family steeped in a love of art. Her father nurtured that passion, and she grew up surrounded by artists: among them were Julian Cierpisz, a writer who worked at the University of Wrocław, and Juliusz von Farensbach Faszowicz, a painter descended from a well-known noble family—both were her father’s uncles.

She describes herself as an abstract expressionist. From childhood she has been drawn to color—red is her favorite—and she says painting runs in her veins and colors the world in her soul. Her works represent her thoughts; their style shifts according to content, feelings and an expansive imagination. Each painting records her emotions and the impressions that enter her soul, producing a pleasure she finds irresistible. For her, art founded on feeling is essential: painting is not learned merely as technique but lived and felt. An image succeeds not by likeness but by the feeling it conveys.

Painting offers her stillness amid chaos. It is an addiction, an obsession, a drug; a refuge like a wonderful light and a place she wishes never to leave.

What is your background and how did you start your journey in the art world?

“I grew up in a family full of love for art. My dad instilled in me, that love and passion for art. I have paint in my veins and all the world colors in my soul. I refer to my self as an abstract expressionist artist. My paintings are the record of my own feelings and best minds, a thing which enters into my soul and produces a kind of pleasure which my crazy mind can not do without, I can't resist. An art which isn't based on feeling isn't an art at all. Painting is not taught, you feel, you live this. Image is good not because it looks like something but because it feels like something. Painting help me achieve stillness in the midst of chaos. My imagination makes me human and makes me a fool, but it gives me all the world.”