Grzegorz Kowal
My biggest fan and supporter.
Est. 1999
The Firsts
Mabel
Mabel and Steven would come play poker with us at our home. On one occasion she admired a painting of mine; I took it right off the wall and gave it to her. Having someone like a doodle of mine never failed to fill me with joy, so it felt natural to just hand it right over to her.
Mabel was the first person to ever give me money for my work. I refused it, but she just left her money on a table saying that it was my work and she is honored to pay me for it.
The painting is not a great work by any standard, Mabel surely deserves better, and til this day I feel like I bullied her into into ownership of that piece. Her contribution however was beyond monetary. It was a reminder that art is not free - it’s work - and she emboldened me to dare to dream that it can make my living.
Cindy
I’ve worked at many different places over the course of my life. I was very lucky to meet some of the best people and luckier still to retain their friendship.
Cindy was someone I met through work. She is soft-spoken, gentle, beautiful; driven, determined and ambitious all the same. She was the first person to buy a painting from me. Someone who wasn’t related, who had no idea what my artistic endeavors were. She just liked my work, so she bought it. The magical simplicity of that is hard to put in words.
Every artist needs a Cindy.
Ben
Ben hosted a podcast back in 2014 that was relevant to my interests. I’ve remained his loyal stalker for a few years which resulted in a friendship.
Above, he is with a painting he bought from me, which alone meant the world - but he challenged me further by becoming the first person to commission a painting. His confidence in my work gave me permission to dream (and pay rent!)
The Flying Spaghetti Monster is now watching over Ben in his home. You can see the original in the gallery and prints are available as well.
Ben thrives on success of complete strangers. A perpetual force of encouragement and support, an entrepreneur and a writer.
Inspiration
I never invested enough time or money in my education. As an immigrant, many facets of my life were inconsistent and without promise of a future. Nevertheless, I’ve always done the best with what I had. Reading up on art history and having limitless access to the magic of the Internet, I can say that education just organically continued throughout life. Art in one form or another has always been a safe haven for me, thus I always found my way back.
I took a six class course at a studio on the Upper West Side a number of years back lead by James Falciano. This doesn’t sound like it should be groundbreaking, but it was. Time spent away from distractions, surrounded by people with similar goals and passions should not be underestimated.
This course unexpectedly took the skills that lived in me in scattered state and placed them neatly on shelves. The experience yielded a new perspective and the painting below. The riverbed directs the water on a certain path; in a way, all my knowledge and skills didn’t have a riverbed.
The reference for this painting is a picture my husband took of our daughter in Pennsylvania.
Sofia reacting to her painting.