From Godzilla to creepy toys
Pictou County artist getting her creativity back after health scare
For four years, Joan Krawczyk spent much of her time in bed, high on hydromorphone, her creativity lost in the fog of painkillers.
Two back fusions and two hip replacements later, the Pictou County artist is back on her feet and creating art again.
Her most recent work can be seen at the West Side Bistro in New Glasgow, where she created custom wisteria paintings to suit the atmosphere of the restaurant. And at the recently-opened Studio Lab Gallery in downtown New Glasgow, some of her most unique paintings from the past are on display and available for sale.
Creative work
In the 1990s, Krawczyk created a painting for Jodie Foster that was used in her 1995 film Home for the Holidays. She incorporated gold leaf paint into the work and became enchanted with using it.
Around the same time, she read an article about how the Japanese Godzilla represented America. It prompted her to do a series similar to the famous Stations of the Cross, but instead of 14 images of Christ leading to the cross, it featured Godzilla.
“I never did finish all 14,” she said. “I ran out of gold and money.”
The reception wasn’t so great for her creation.
“When I first showed these Godzillas, artists hated them – and this was in Manhattan. They were outright nasty to me.”
It made her realize that Manhattan was no different than anywhere else - it, too, had people with attitudes that don’t appreciate a different style of art.
While living in Toronto and Manhattan in the 1980s, Krawczyk created what she likes to call her
‘bubble paintings’.
“They were a reaction to formalist art,” she explains. “It was a reaction to having a flat canvas surface and pushing the surface of the canvas as far back as I could and as far forward as I could. I got to the point where I started adding things like a can top.”
Others feature holes, which again were to push the canvas, she said.
A pair of large, bright red paintings are covered with cadmium, a paint not only rich in colour but pricey in its own right. Conversations have also prompted her to explore ideas in art. Krawczyk remembers a discussion with her brother that inspired a series of artwork of the ugliest toys she could find - including some toys with bendy appendages and bloodshot eyes - that she painted with oil paint and a wax medium that gives texture to the images.
At Studio Lab Gallery
Ken Roux, who opened the Studio Lab Gallery about six months ago, said his vision for the commercial studio was to show contemporary art and experimental artwork.
“I don’t want it to be just a regular gallery,” he said.
And Krawczyk work fits with that vision.
“I like these because that they’re really fun to me,” Roux said. “It’s fun work.”
Krawczyk’s work will be on display until the end of the month.