interview | 2003-2006
They say that a portrait is something simple. Talking to the person. Questions and answers. Some information. “No”, said Wolf. “Wolf”, whispered Lil, “So…Never…” “Later”, said Wolf, “First…” (…) “What is it that you want to forget about?”, asked Lil, gloomily. “When you don’t remember anything”, replied Wolf, “everything is sure to look different.” That is why one has to catch the word, hold on to it and make a key out of it. A person, a scrap of a day, time’s descending slope. Talking at dawn, a day given as a gift from the person, duration time has finished. Period. An image has remained. Someone who talks calmly and in distraction, perhaps natural shyness becomes him? Grass-coloured. The conversation has a yellow or red consistency? Not blue, no. Portraits painted by Paweł are events registered on the screen of the canvas, events which he initially filtered through his memory and through its circuits, they are often registrations of impressions, events, impressions with the person as protagonist. Abstracted from reality, scanned, there was noise and sharpen, with rendering in the end. The portrait is simple and personal. Personal because of its object and subject. Paweł makes portraits because he likes people, he is capable of watching them. The portraits are saturated, complete and well supplied, thanks to long conversations and a whole colourful spectrum of personal experiences. Each person must have its pitch, determined for example by the number of words pronounced per minute, by the sound of a whisked off eyelash, the thickness of the pullover worn last Tuesday, everything counts. Nothing can have empty spaces within, unless it’s the silence of the person that’s being painted. An afternoon portrait, an early evening portrait. Yellow hair, red grass, Paweł Mendrek, Full Color. by gosia szandala | pl
3/20 | mixed media paintings / canvas