Why are skeletons and skulls so present in my artwork?

I spent my childhood in a quiet, small Polish village, located in the previously German territory.

An everyday element of the local beautiful landscape were palaces abandoned before 1945, overgrown parks, and cemeteries that no one remembered anymore.

It was in these cemeteries that I could see human skeletons for the first time. Many graves were open and plundered by robbers, with human remains scattered throughout.

As children, we were fascinated by such places. We came there to see beautiful sculptures and marble tombstones. We collected wildflowers and placed them on the graves to honour the memory of the deceased. For us, children, it didn't matter what nationality these people were.

It was then that my natural fascination with the structure of the human body and skeleton began.

Thanks to these experiences, in later years, my first histopathology classes in the mortuary were not traumatic.

I have fond memories of working with skeletons at archaeological sites. 

The moments when, step by step, gently using a spatula and brush, we discover the individual elements of the skeleton are the moments when we have time to think about this human. Think about who he or she was, what he did, and whether he had a family and a happy life?

We realise that these bones were once living organism, just like we are now.

This is why drawing skulls or skeletons is an equally important element of my work, after flowers. To some extent, this is a way of cultivating the memory of the dead, and as we know, it builds our identity, regardless of whether we are religious or not.

Non omnis moriar…

*Last photograph - Young Archaeologist and Artist at work ;-)