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'Through the Looking Glass'
Huntington artist Ewa K. Adamczyk Alvarez draws inspiration from nature
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| | | The artist's 'Volvox Mandala II', watercolor. | |
March 19, 2009 | 11:56 AM
"Through the Looking Glass," an exhibit of paintings by, not Lewis Carroll, but Ewa K. Adamczyk Alvarez, has recently opened at the Huntington Public Library.
Actually, "Alice in Wonderland" is a favorite story of Adamczyk Alvarez. "My mother used to read it to me and my sister … When I paint, I go into another reality."
Many of her paintings are based on images seen through a lens. While Adamczyk Alvarez doesn't have a microscope herself, she has researched and studied sights as seen through microscopes, through the Hubble telescope and through a camera lens.
"Some [of my paintings] are based on microscope images. A lot are impressions I get and things form in my mind. I'm influenced by [what I see]. They get translated — an image, new on its own emerges. I'm inspired."
Some pictures — she paints in oils and watercolors primarily — resemble gorgeous, hand-dyed fabric designs such as "Cnidarians" and "Blue Plankton." "I love fabric. I've never designed it, but I collect it. I quilt, too."
Alvarez, who has shown her work locally and in Washington, D.C. where she previously lived, notes that "I don't put the business of art high. It's not a priority. It's all about making the paintings … I'm a lifetime artist. I do work part-time in the library, but painting and photography — that's my job."
Most of the subjects of her paintings are from nature. Protecting the environment is very important to her. "I'm committed to portraying the beauty of nature. That's been one of the driving forces" in her art. She looks at "how patterns repeat … how things are interconnected … We're just part of a huge picture. All living beings in the world are important."
Many of her paintings, such as "Blood and Cells," "Volvox I," "Volvox II and "Chlorella" look like they came from another world, which in a way they do, the world of the miniscule.
One painting looks like a plant from another planet. Actually, noted Adamczyk Alvarez, "I used to work at the Smithsonian. I took pictures of the plants in the garden." Those pictures inspired the green and yellow, oil on canvas, "Anemone xhybrida."
Other paintings resemble microorganisms swimming in pond water, but as Alvarez notes, she is inspired and the work is transformed, as is obvious with the strong, intense colors — reds, oranges, blues and greens — she uses in her work.
She notes, "One of the forms I use in my work is the mandala. This geometric pattern is of Hindu origin and represents the cosmos metaphysically from the human perspective." The paintings in her Mandalas series are reminiscent, however, of looking through an ever-changing and colorful kaleidoscope, but in her hands, become an instant captured on paper forever.
Some of her works are reminiscent of fractals such as "Please Do Not Climb This Rare Tree" and "Volvox Mandala II." Adamczyk Alvarez herself noted that she was fascinated with "how patterns repeat — capillaries look like tree branches."
Adamczyk Alvarez studied fine art and art history at Boston University. Her interest in art comes to her naturally. Not only is her mother an artist, "she's the person I get the gene from" (her father is a scientist), but there was also another artist in the family as well, her mother had mentioned.
"Recently I've been working in water colors because I have small children and oils are messy. Now [that they are getting older] I'm getting back into the oils."
Alvarez was born in Poland and immigrated here with her parents in 1986, "right before the big changes. It was harder to leave when we left. It's like a different world there now." Alvarez and her husband have two sons and live in Huntington.
"Through the Looking Glass" may be seen during regular library hours through May 18. Adamczyk Alvarez's website site is www.ewakaa.com.
Photos courtesy of Ewa K. Adamczyk Alvarez
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