Katarzyna Mruczek painter and professional cellist born in Gdańsk, Poland where she lives and works creating abstract art and sound. Practicing these two fields of art awoke her sensitivity and imagination. It triggered a sixth sense - hearing colours.
How did you get into art?
Art and music have always been a big part of my life. As a child, I remember the day I got my first set of gouache paints. As you can imagine it was a big deal for me. My first painting was just a piece of paper fully filled with plain brown paint. It was my first imagination of a tree. Abstract, right!!! As a teenager I became interested in painting on silk. It was my great passion throughout my school years. In the meantime, I started to learn playing cello which led to my professional career as a musician. As an adult, I returned to silk painting and after a while I received my first commission for a large-format abstract canvas. I also started an Instagram account and quickly found growing interest in my art on that platform. Later on, a Warsaw based gallery reached out to me offering a collaboration that allowed me to feature in exhibitions.... and so it began.
How would you describe your style? What makes your art special?
I can describe my style as a blend of abstract expressionism and cubism. I have an inner need for growth and change. I also came across the abstract landscape trend. I prefer new, undefined forms and shapes over attempts to photograph the reality. I focus on developing new worlds in my art. My art is a technologically unique and creative act. It is an expression of a longing for spontaneity and, at the same time, a continuous search for light and perfect composition. It is meant to stimulate imagination, to evoke pleasure, to be a relief from the noise of information. I believe that the strength of my art. lies in non-figurative means of expression such as original colour combinations, brushstroke, texture, new and non-obvious subjects of a painting.
How do you go about developing your work?
I often work intuitively starting only with an idea or a sketch. For this, I constantly strive for compositional perfection and harmony. Seemingly quarrelling elements of a painting seek consonance and a common denominator. I am fascinated by the play of colours and the work of light. I always develop my work in layers as if I was composing a polyphonic piece where musical themes interact like layers in a painting. My work refers to the psychological concept of flow, i.e. an euphoric state caused by a total dedication to an activity. While creating my art, I experience ”flow” as a state of consciousness. 
Who or what influences you?
My senses are strongly influenced by music – my beloved genres are early 20th century avant-garde music and rock. I admire how light can interact with colour in nature. I am strongly influenced by literature, which often accompanies me when I paint and often provides unconscious inspiration. I am fascinated by light in theatrical performances. Great inspiration of mine is art in general and its wonderful history. I love paintings of Lyonel Feininger, Helen Frankenthaler, everything from Pablo Picasso, as well as the excellent three-dimensional designs of Peter Tarka. I am often inspired by my own paintings. The energy they create in me leads to new creations.
What are you planning to do next?
Currently I am working on a series of abstract landscapes on small wooden panels. I'm also creating a limited edition giclee print series. I can reveal that it will be a bit of a mosaic of the most interesting elements from my different paintings. With regards to my Instagram, I’m planning to put out more content (including videos) from my working process. This might sound cliche but my dream is to have my art shown at an exhibition in Paris one day in the future.
Instagram
