Meditation, automatic drawing and deep analysis - all of these merge together in the work of Elzbieta Ratajczak. Her works, known as KODRYS, carry not only aesthetic value, but also a deep philosophical meaning. Today we will talk about how personal experience and spiritual practices influence her art.
Elzbieta, can you tell us about how you started to create? What techniques and styles were the most important for you at the initial stages?
For as long as I can remember, I have always loved to draw and write. However, my creativity only started when my children grew up. I was able to make time for my hobbies. It was in 2004. I learned about the ‘Autumn on the Barrow’ art contest and submitted my artwork. I drew a mound in pen and ink and won third place. Since then I started adding my works to the collective exhibitions. I mostly drew in pencil, but also in pen and ink. They were realistic works.
Which artists or art movements have influenced you the most and why?
Stanislaw Wyspianski’s art has touched me since I was a child. When I looked at his portraits of children, I thought I could feel the souls of the people depicted. I always liked the way he decorated his works with plant motifs – they gave them an extraordinary atmosphere and elegance. His line was like plant stems reaching for the sun, and it was the sun in his stained glass windows that emphasised the mastery of his visual art. Seeing these works in the Cathedral in Kraków was a feast for my senses.
The second artist who made a huge impression on me and whom it is impossible to pass by indifferently is Maurits Cornelis Escher, a Dutch graphic artist. His works fascinate me, I can’t take my eyes off them and I could admire them forever. His view of the world is so unique and fantastic that I would like to be an ant travelling through its labyrinths
How would you describe your path to art? What was the biggest challenge and what was the most satisfying?
My path to art was long and winding. I sent my documents for admission to the art academy in Torun, but they didn’t arrive on time. As a result, I had to find work in a design office, specifically in the department of standardization and testing of furniture fittings in Bydgoszcz. Later, I graduated from a mechanical college. After I got married, I decided to find a job closer to home and started working at the local Co-operative Bank in Barcinie. Family responsibilities demanded a lot of my time, and I couldn’t fully dedicate myself to my artistic pursuits. However, as my children grew older, I gradually began to participate in group exhibitions.
I always dreamed of having a solo exhibition, but I never had time for it. One day, while working at the bank, I received a call from the House of Culture and was asked if I would like to organise my own exhibition. I immediately said yes and confessed that it was my dream. The director of MDK (Youth House of Culture), Mrs Rona, said that the exhibition could take place in a month’s time and I needed to make a decision now.
I replied that I didn’t have enough works to fill such a big gallery. But then I thought: if I didn’t accept now, no one else would offer me the opportunity, and I would never get round to preparing works for my own exhibition.
I accepted, but when I got home I realised what I had done. I wanted to cry, but it was too late to back out.
I took a large piece of cardboard, cut it in half. On one I drew trees with pen and ink, and on the other I decided to create an abstraction. When I finished, I looked at the drawing. I couldn’t believe what I saw – it was like reading a book. Out of the chaos, a logical meaning emerged.
Then I decided that the next drawing would also be abstract, but I would do it in a circle. And again it turned out that I could see a certain meaning in it. I felt supported, and the work process went faster. Nevertheless, I had to sit up nights to be on time.
I wanted this exhibition to be special, so I announced that after the vernissage I would hold a mandala meditation for those interested.
It was amazing! There were a lot of people at the meditation and at the end people came up to me for autographs, although I had never seen an artist signing autographs at an art exhibition before. It was an incredible experience.
Where did the name ‘KODRYS’ come from? How does it link the concepts of code and drawing?
In the beginning I exhibited my works as mandalas. However, I have noticed that my mandalas are quite different and are not their classic version. They don’t have a geometric structure, but they are centralised and drawn in a circle, and according to Suzanne Fincher, they are mandalas. I thought I would create my own title. I didn’t want anyone to ever interfere with my work and dictate what should be in my drawing and what shouldn’t. As I was drawing, different codes came up that were quintessential to my work. I decided to include the word code in the title, and since I was drawing codes, it was clear to me to call them KODRYS.
CODE+RYS = KODRYS.
You are talking about automatic drawing. Can you describe the process of creating KODRYS? Is it a meditative state, a trance or more of a concentrated work?
When I start drawing a KODRYS for a particular person, I need a ‘witness’, i.e. something that belongs to him/her. Usually it is a photograph, but it can be anything, for example: a pen, keys, a piece of paper with a short note or a question. With my left hand I hold the object and with my right hand I draw. If it’s a photograph, I hold my hand over it. An acquaintance brought her husband’s jumper. She wanted to know what would happen to her marriage? She got an answer and a specific clue. The second step is to calm down and draw, and this can already be referred to meditation and moving to a higher level of mindfulness. I don’t do any other preparation. Even the television is on. The third step is reading. I carefully analyse every detail. Although when I am drawing for someone on commission, I leave a few elements out so that the person in question, who owns the CODRYS, will come to an understanding of why that detail appeared on his/her CODRYS. Then they come to me and happily inform me that they have realised what the piece was about.
Can everyone read KODRYS, or is it a skill that can be developed? Are there any ‘keys’ to interpretation?
As far as reading a KODRYS, it is not a simple matter. I had many exhibitions, but no one could read them independently. Only when I analysed the KODRYS step by step, they became clear. That’s why for a long time now I have been making detailed descriptions at the KODRYS at my vernissages. When I paint someone a KODRYS, I get an inner transmission on how I should interpret it. In addition, during the years when I did not have the opportunity to draw, I read philosophical and psychological books, analysed Tarot symbolism, and studied graphology. I learned to notice nuances that most people don’t pay attention to. I learnt to look to see. I didn’t know that this knowledge would one day be useful to me for reading KODRYS.
Do you have rituals or habits that help you get into a creative state of mind before you start working?
When I start working, I like to keep some object near me that belonged to my parents. Sometimes it is a figurine carved by my father, and sometimes I just look at their smiling faces in a photograph. It is an incredible energy boost, the joy of childhood frozen in individual gestures, words, memorable scenes from their lives.
At such moments I feel as if I have been given wings. It seems like nothing at all, but in fact it is infinitely more.
What emotions would you like to evoke in people when they get acquainted with KODRYS? Have you ever been surprised by an audience member's interpretation of a KODRYS?
When I create art, I have never intentionally sought to evoke any emotion. Art that comes from the heart doesn’t need that – the viewers themselves subtly grasp all the nuances.
If we talk about people’s reactions at my vernissages, I can say that they were always friendly, amazing, with great interest and lots of questions. I was especially surprised when an artist from Bydgoszcz, Zbigniew Jastrowski, said that KODRYSY is a symphony in painting.
One day I painted a KODRYS for a man. When I started to tell him what it depicted, he said: ‘Unprecedented admiration for you…’, “It is simply fascinating…”. Later it turned out to be a professor of philosophy and other sciences. At the end he said: ‘Your sensitivity has a symbolic background, which took root greather than in many after graduation’. He couldn’t understand how I was able to give so much detail about a man I had never met before. I explained that I was just ‘reading’ what I had drawn. That moment was a real recognition of my labour.
Many times I was pleasantly surprised when viewers noticed details in the KODRYS that I had not described myself, but that they had intuitively guessed.
Such reactions are very important to me. They give me confidence that what I do is really necessary for people.
Which of the awards and recognitions you have received do you find most meaningful and why?
The first significant award for me was winning the competition in CKU Znin and taking 1st place in the poll “Century 2013” in the category ‘Artist – Creator of the Year 2013’.
I don’t even know who submitted my nomination for this competition. Among my competitors were, among others, teachers of fine arts.
When they announced at the ceremony that there were several thousand votes, I thought that no one knew me and I had no chance against professional teachers. I automatically moved closer to the table, not hoping to win. When they read out my name I got so jammed up in that table that I couldn’t get out to get my prize. I got confused. I couldn’t believe that I had beaten someone I thought was stronger than me.
The real triumph for me was winning first place and two second places at once in the Golden Time Talent competition, as well as third place in the ART Grand Final. This is a huge honour and recognition of my creativity, especially considering that the judges were from different countries, the competition was from all over the world and only the best participated in the Grand Final.
I am a pioneer in my art, and I am all the more grateful to you for your attention to KODRYS and your desire to understand it. This is very important to me, because when you are breaking new ground, every step is not easy.
What do you think makes a work of art successful or meaningful?
Experts can name many criteria for evaluating a work of art: technical execution, composition, originality, symbolism, historical value, and much more.
But I will tell you how I feel about it. When I saw Leonardo da Vinci’s ‘Lady with an Ermine’ in the Czartoryski Museum in Krakow, I was breathless. I felt the same way when I looked at Stanislaw Wyspianski’s stained glass windows or Wit Stwosz’s sculptures in Kraków and Nuremberg, as well as works by other great masters.
It is a sensation that I myself cannot fully explain. It is magic when an artist is able to evoke such emotions not only in one person, but also in entire nations through his work.
How do you popularise KODRYS? What promotion methods have you used so far and what has been most effective?
I love vernissages and live dialogue with people most of all.
Viewers perceive my art very warmly and with great interest. They are amazed, ask a lot of questions, and carefully read the descriptions of the works, which help them to understand the meaning of what is depicted. Many try to interpret the KODRYS on their own, but in the end they recognise that explanations are really necessary.
I am often asked, ‘Is there going to be a book about KODRYSAs?’
There is also a lot of interaction going on in the online space. People are very attracted to the KODRYS, especially the interpretation I always attach to them.
You mentioned that 20 years have passed since the first competition. How has your attitude to art in general and to KODRYS changed over these years?
My path went from realism to art born out of chaos.
My early drawings were cute, but the mystery lurking in every sheet of CODYSS is something else entirely. Every time I start drawing, I am impressed by the meaning that is revealed as I work, and that feeling remains unchanged.
The cognition of the KODRYS came about gradually:
– first it was general drawings (including CODRAYS of Unearthly Beings),
– then works centred on the individual,
– answers to questions,
– drawings for the missing,
– works created with artefacts.
Studying KODRYS reminds me of getting to know a friend, and a friend is to be trusted.
When I look at the work of others, I try to see the uniqueness in it, to admire the play of colours, to look for mysterious messages leading to uncharted depths.
What are your future plans related to KODRYS and creativity in general? Are you planning exhibitions, publications, masterclasses?
I would like to create more KODRYS related to artefacts, to help people, and to write a book about KODRYS.
But first of all I need to finish a book about my family’s life during the Second World War. In particular, it will include memories of the Warsaw Uprising.
I also plan to organise an exhibition of my works outside Poland.
Elzbieta Ratajczak's creativity is not just about creating beautiful paintings. It is a deep immersion into oneself, a search for meaning and a desire to share one's discoveries with others. KODRYS are not just abstract images, they are a kind of visual poems that make us think about eternal questions. The Global Talent Confederation team sincerely wishes you new creative success and inspiration for many years to come
