Krzysztof KOSOWSKI

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• Short Biography
• Artist Video

Short Biography

Krzysztof Kosowski was born in Jabłonowo Pomorskie in 1963. When he was 9 years old, he lost his hands as a result of being electrocuted. He studied history of art for two years at the University of Wrocław. He paints by mouth and feet and employs a number of techniques, the most frequent being oil, watercolour and pastel. He finds inspiration for his work in fairy tales, myths and the world of the imagination, as well as the reality which surrounds him. He lives in Grudziądz with his wife and children. He has been a member of the Association of Foot and Mouth Painting Artists of the World since 1988. His cooperation with the ‘AMUN’ publishing house dates back to its inception in 1993. In the paintings I create, I try to combine various moods and threads – they often contain notes of nostalgia and irony or satire. People react to them in various ways. I attempt to create work which is multi-layered. I don’t want to impose my way of seeing things or reacting to them on anyone. It’s difficult for me to say which ‘child’ is the one I love most. I like painting motifs from fairy tales, various groupings of ceramic crockery, series of snowmen. I spend a great deal of time in front of the easel, although I haven’t created all that many works. The painting of details is very time-consuming. When I had hands, I used to paint, just like every school kid. My parents gave me felt-tip pens and pencils so that I could draw things. When I wound up in hospital after the accident, firstly in Warsaw, then in Poznań, there were rehabilitation classes and I tried to paint during them. That was the beginning of my painting by mouth. I have a great deal to thank Professor Wanda Szuman from Toruń and the satirist, Tadeusz Mróz for; both of them exerted a considerable influence on my creativity. In childhood, the border between the real world and the world of fairy tales is very fluid; it’s only later that it becomes clearly defined. However, I think something remains in all of us from that period and this isn’t something which should be abandoned. Elements from fairy tales reach out to everyone’s subconscious unless someone is so very rigid that they really have no feeling for such things at all. An adult’s return to childhood certainly doesn’t have to mean infantilism, but is rather an enrichment of adulthood in some way. I’d like to paint something which is still drowsing in my subconscious. It won’t be something extraordinary or great, but I know that I want to say something which I haven’t yet been able to express fully and I’m waiting for it to emerge.