Kelly Olszyk

      Once again I am driving, traveling along the same road that I have a hundred times before. Seeing the same old houses, the same trees, the same sky. But, here’s the thing, even though nothing has changed around me, I don’t always see it as what it is. I call myself an artist, not for the namesake, but because deep down, I feel it. When I look around me I take pictures, both physically and mentally. Once I get back to my studio and begin to paint, a transformation occurs. Sometimes a simple shape that I saw earlier becomes a grand gesture of something more magnificent than it ever could be and other times I will paint a complex subject and break it down into it’s purest parts. When I hear people talking about art, what it is and what it is not, I think to myself, what is my opinion about it, my feelings? I find it difficult to categorize it into something so limited. Are you an artist because you were classically trained? Are you an artist because you do things the way that they should be done? Or are you an artist because it is part of who you are? I have gone through my life doing different jobs and doing them well, however I consider those experiences, things that I have done, not part of who I am. I have had a love of art ever since I was a child. I did not understand the difference of style or of technical aspects. All I knew was that when I set a pencil to paper, something happened. Something that I had some control over but that in the same breath had some control over me. Art is part of who I am, it is as much a part of me as my blood and it is cradled deep into my soul. When I show my work, I do not let criticism or judgment interfere with how I perceive it. I want people to see a glimpse of what I see. I have a painting titled “gymnast”. When you look at the painting, you could imagine the girl as not being happy with herself, that she is doing this just because, you could see the layers of her personality unraveling, peeling away to her inner self. On the other hand, another person might see a truly beautiful woman, maybe the viewer was a gymnast in her youth and now being older this is how she remembers herself. Graceful and elegant, but her memory is fading so it is not as clear as it once was. Like an old, worn photograph. Yet, still a beautiful and happy one. The idea that I want to get across to someone looking at my paintings is to really look into it, let the story unfold or permit their own story to emerge. I do not want to limit their thoughts of every painting having this deep, mystifying meaning of life and morality. Sometimes the meaning is clear, sometimes its story is waiting to be told and sometimes it simply is what it is. A beautiful flower does not need to explain itself. I only hope that when someone looks my paintings that they take something away with them, a feeling, a thought, an emotion. I hope that they see the purpose within the mundane, the uniqueness of the every day and the possibilities of seeing some beauty in everything.