When you walk on a deserted beach in the fall, it might occur to you that death is all around you. Shells are empty because their occupants have died and decomposed. The shells themselves will break down and become sand. Such a realization or revelation happened to me, and I expanded this observation beyond the beach. I began to contemplate my backyard—a very small piece of land—differently, and to see it as a historical site with layers of past lives that had unfolded there. I believe everything leaves some mark that, over time, is woven into the memory of soil, plants, and trees.
A long time ago, people understood soil as a mysterious life chamber that regulates cycles of dying and renewal, going underground and springing forth with new life. Mythology is such an excellent guidebook. I found similar ideas and inspiration in books by the Polish-Jewish writer and visual artist Bruno Schulz (1892-1942). Schulz describes going down, down, down, deep into soil and earth and finding some kind of chamber of stored history. In my drawing “Disorder (Bruno Schulz),” I added some of his text in the original Polish—the first time I’ve included writing in my artwork.
Archaeology still surprises us with new discoveries of deeply buried things. At the British Museum and the Louvre, I photographed non-fired Neolithic ceramic statues from the Ain Ghazal site in Jordan and incorporated the images into my art.
These are among my inspirations, but translating these thoughts into art in a straightforward visual message is not easy. A few years ago, I started working on a series of drawings I call “Landscape and Memories,” or “Invisible Landscapes.” The process is quite complex. First, I collage compositions of two different types of paper: opaque Arches watercolor paper and mostly translucent abaca paper, which I made myself. I often dye papers and move away from standard rectangular formats. Combining translucent and opaque papers reflects the idea of the visible and the invisible, expressing my thoughts on nature’s visible and hidden aspects. Then I draw on the prepared paper, using a variety of materials: pencils, crayons, watercolor, etc.
My goal is to explore the layers of meaning in our natural environment, both the visible and hidden, the easily accessible and the harder to reach. I attempt to reveal nature as an ongoing process—a process in which we ourselves are a part.
About the Artist
Photo by Richard Pettit.
Elzbieta Sikorska was born in Warsaw, Poland, and studied printmaking and painting at the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts. After leaving Poland and a brief stay in Germany, she moved to the U.S., initially settling in New Hampshire and later in the Washington, D.C. area, where she still lives and works.
Throughout her artistic life, she has explored various media. For the past 20 years, her focus has been working on and with paper. Her drawings have evolved from small pencil sketches to large-scale multimedia works.
During her career, Sikorska has exhibited her work nationally and internationally. Selected solo exhibitions include Time Stands Still at the Katzen Arts Center at American University, Washington, D.C.; Nature and Culture at the McLean Project for the Arts, McLean, Virginia; Everything Is Double at the Athenaeum Gallery, Alexandria, Virginia; Territory, Ambiguity at the Maryland Art Space, Baltimore; Pejzaże (Landscapes) at the Kordegarda Gallery in Warsaw, Poland; and Landscapes at the Polish Institute, Leipzig, Germany. She has also participated in numerous group exhibitions in the U.S. and abroad.
She has received many fellowships, awards, and residencies, including grants from the Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County and the Maryland State Arts Council, the Franz and Virginia Bader Fund in Washington, D.C., and a residency at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Her work is part of numerous private and public collections, including the National Museum of Women in the Arts, the District of Columbia Art Bank, and the National Museum in Krakow, Poland.
Find more of Elzbieta’s work at www.elzbietasikorska.com and on Instagram.
View her recent artist talk here.
All images by Elzbieta Sikorska.
