About the author

Maryla Violetta Kwiatkowska was born in 1946 in the town of Głowno near Łódź, Poland. In 1968 she moved permanently to the town of Koszalin, Poland, where she became a member of the Creative Work Team. The turning point in the artist's life was her mother's illness and death. After this experience, in 1992 she discovered her call for artistic painting and the need to help others, which was a momentous point in her career. She began her first job as a bioenergy and massage therapist in the Kinesiology Centre in Warsaw. In 1998 she went to stay permanently in Canada; while working as a bioenergy therapist in Toronto, she began  to work on her first paintings under the tutelage of artist Jerzy Denis-Denisiuk (a lecturer at the University of Toronto in 1980-2002). Her painting passion  gradually intertwined with her desire to do a service to people. She worked for various charities and became a doctor of the body and the soul. Her broad connections with the Polish diaspora allowed her to establish contacts with the Polish Consulate in Toronto and start cooperation with the Radio Polonia in the city. Thanks to her artistic achievements she became a member of the Toronto Arts Council.

Maryla Kwiatkowska's artistic work tells an extraordinary story of her search for defining beauty. It reflects experiences of a woman, a wife, a mother and a painter, who permanently settled down outside the borders of her motherland and, ever since has wanted to communicate to people her fascination, emotions and positive energy. She chose drawing and painting as her degree course, which allowed her to manifest the unceasing need to share thoughts and emotions with others. Her longing for the motherland and family found an artistic outlet in painted works. The impetuosity of Maryla's artistic nature resulted in a great number of paintings which were oozing energetic power. Being a bioenergy therapist herself, she felt that her vocation was to do service to other people and unleash their hidden spiritual powers; she was also aware of how essential it was to bring relief and treat those who are ill. The artist deflected from copying nature and started to follow the abstract trend in art while creating her compositions. There, the subject matter of a painting is of little importance; It is the means of artistic expression applied by her that construct the entirety of the composition. Looking at Maryla Violetta Kwiatkowska's works, at the composition's dynamics, the vividness of colours and the fluidity of volatile lines, you cannot help but think of one the most outstanding Russian abstract painters, graphic artists and art theorists – Wassily Kandyński.  His pursuit of the fundamental purpose of art is closely linked with the liberation of spiritual powers intrinsic to each person. So called Inner Necessity is the power of a potent emotional load and deeply hidden mystical forces. Thanks to that power art is born. In order to get into abstract art, we have to get rid of all that is external, exists outside us, and follow our heart. Thus every form externalizes the internal contents. So, Maryla Kwiatkowska's compositions answer the question: what is the spiritual beauty? Her colourful lines and spots give a specific evidence of what we - the viewers and fans deep down really are. In her drawings, the artist uses flexible lines, in the style of Art Nouveau, creating a mystical moment, or its vision while in contact with another person.

This out-of-the material world, extrasensory relationship between a person and the reality created by Maryla, translates directly into the language of art. Anyone who had the opportunity to watch those sophisticated, lacy, little wonders must have been impressed by the quality of the line, shapes and the final result-Maryla's personal message. Sometimes they become our property - just for luck.  The topics touched upon by the artist not only revolve around  mystical perception of the reality and transcendence; they also search for beauty in nature. For this reason, her painting collections feature multi-coloured landscapes composing complete cycles. It is even more  interesting, as the layout is untypical - vertical. Here Maryla's provocative nature reveals itself - who says a landscape has to be horizontal?

 Portraits presenting beautiful, angelic faces constitute another cycle of paintings. The faces, with their eyes fixed on some far-away places, are in search of infinity. That is the artist's dialogue with herself. Those are her self-portraits, the result of her experiences and emotions which manifest themselves in this way. The emotions are plentiful and so they must find an outlet to go away. Hence, a great number of paintings devoted to this topic, where the artist uses various means of expression in order to achieve the intended effect-oil paint, acrylic paint and a drawing in one composition.

There are still a lot of  experiences and raptures to be put on paper or canvas ahead of the artist. There are many fleeting moments which she will want to record to keep in our memory for ever.

We have been by her side for many years and we are still watching her overtly childlike joy of creation and the happiness in her eyes when she can help someone.

Bioenergy therapy and art speak one language in Maryla Violetta Kwiatkowska's art. The measureless energy potential aiming at achieving balance is something that enraptures us. Her power of expression, insight and the fact that she can never have enough of LIFE.

I want!

I must!

I am here waiting for you!!!

REMEMBER, YOU CAN MAKE IT.

Although we might travel the whole world in search of the beautiful, we shall not find it unless we carry it in ourselves.

(trappist Ralph Waldo Emerson)

 senior curator Wiesława Przybyło-Cieślik