I began to draw satirical drawings from 1983. It all started by accident. I made a few funny commentaries on our life in socialist realities in Eastern Block to my friend during one of our conversations. He was then already recognized cartoonist in Polish press media, He invited me to draw something funny for two festivals of satirical art. One was taking place in Montreal, Canada, and another in Casino Beringen, Belgium. I thought about it and it appeared to me like a new artistic adventure. I did two drawings responding to the festivals themes. One was about a censorship in press media and another was a free gag. He sent my drawings together with his in the same envelope, in order to economize on the mailing cost. The results were quiet encouraging. The drawing about the press won a prize in Belgium and in Montreal my artwork was accepted to the festival final exposition. Both drawings were published in festivals’ catalogs. These two facts encouraged me to pursue my artistic carrier in the field of satirical art. I begun to participate in different national and international festivals of satirical art and started to collect various prizes. One of the most important was the third prize in the International Biennial of Graphic Art in Sofia, Bulgaria. It was the first time, when I received financial remuneration for my artwork. It was approximately four hundreds American dollars, what represented at that time a small fortune in our socialist realities of Eastern Block. At that moment I started already publish my drawings in various publications getting at the same time more and more confident about my satirical abilities. It is in part the facility to see the ridicule and draw visual commentaries about it. It helped me to make my living when I was staying in Greece waiting to immigrate to Canada. I am definitely a painter, but the various forms of satirical art, like caricature and cartooning are with me since the beginning of my carrier. Drawing cartoons and caricatures is a passion to me, which I do exercise regularly since 1983. I always wanted to be a writer and journalist, and what I am doing in my satirical artwork is commenting on our contemporary realities. It is for me a kind of visual journalism. It is my way to perceive the ridicule sides of our world today. It is unfortunate that in the artistic circles the cartoon art is considered as lower kind of art, because of its commercial aspect. At the end what kind of artistic activities in our Contemporary World are not commercial? All forms of artistic production, even the over intellectualized, are created to be sold. It is why I do not agree with these megalomaniac statements. The satirical art is also created emotionally and involves certain knowledge in order to express various issues in researched and intelligent way. It is an important creative activity, which make people laugh and think. It is a pity that most painters ignore its importance and reduce it to a simple commercial activity. The satirical art is a product of intelligence and interior intellectual poetic sensibility, as any other form of artistic expression, but enriched with a wit and spicy seasoning.
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