Interview by Amber Imrie-Situnayake
A bit about Christina MrozikI am from the Midwest, making my way through life with a pen in hand and a slew of good company. Every Sunday I go to a documentary club where we watch movies and follow them with discussions about theology, ideologies, creativity and beauty. I like going for walks, when the air is cold but your coat is warm, and I know when I get back inside that a cup of cocoa will help melt away the frustrations of the day. I’m in a constant battle, searching for the median between a growing heart and a still spirit. I love drawing, and singing, and I wish there was time for reading, but everything I love seems to be slow and take a lot of time and investment, so I hope someday there will be time for more. My art is primarily about the inter-connectivity of all things, and story, and balance. When I grow up I hope I remember how to be a kid.
Materials: Pen, ink, newsprint, scrapbook paper, watercolor, lace, fur, paper clay, beads, energy, naps, movies and books on tape. Interests: Bones, collections, old photographs, Oriental rugs, thunder storms, locally grown food, dinosaur exhibitions, flea markets, magazine stands, good coffee, dead bugs, goose eggs. Podcast Tour with Christina MrozikYou'll see bellow is a variety of images that Christina and I talk about. Next to each image is an audio file. This file corresponds with the image. Christina gives us an artist tour directly about that piece of work. The text around the images are transcribed "highlights" of that interview section. (Just in case you are unable to listen in.)
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QUELL \\ 22×30 in. \\ Ballpoint, watercolor, marker and gold leaf on paper. \\ 2015
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Personal Work: |
Work created outside of residencies, commissions, or show themes.
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"...It's actually a self portrait, So at the time, there was a lot of my plate. It was a little bit more personal. I tend to make work, sometimes it's about social issues, sometimes it's about me and my story. I actually didn't put this one up or out for a long time because it felt too private. But I've really been working at sharing more of those private things. I think that in doing that, art has just a different kind of impact..." "...I was struggling with a friend of mine who disappeared...and just went silent on me. I was thinking a lot about silence, and ... what it means to feel silenced by someone else..." |
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"...and then there is a little mini-story, if you're an entomology nerd, about cicadas and cicada-killers. (In Hush) some of them are growing, hatching and being reborn, and then some of them are killing or being killed... So it's all the different thoughts that you have that are being born... or being replaced...the system of things, things born and they die and something are attacked and some naturally fall out."
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"...The things that people feel of experience don't happen in cohesion. You don't just feel one thing, you feel so many things at the same time and they are all sort of touching each other. So when I make drawings and I use the visual metaphors, a lot of times I'm trying to add that complexity. " "...(Sowers) is a lose associations with the feeling that I'm growing and stretching, and trying out new things and going to new places. I also feel like I'm exposed and raw. I feel like the things that are pouring out of me are blooming and changing but I also feel very grounded to a place." |
"...I really grapple with loyalty and dedication and wanting to be the kind of human that is very dedicated to other people, dedicated to place. I'm also the kind of human that likes to roam around and travel and see things. I love to try new things but often in trying new things and meeting new people you can get really hurt and damaged... So some of it is about choosing to be vulnerable and choosing to be open..."
Commissions: |
Work Christina is contacted and paid to create for a specified client.
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"...I love doing the children's commissions because I get the call and chat with them. I ask them about the kids I ask them about what their kid's favorite toys are, what their favorite books are, what their favorite activities are. You know, what they daydream about. And then I try to figure out how to weave all of those things into an illustration that can tell a really fantastical story about that specific kid. And also trying to do it in a way where it maybe doesn’t polarize them from doing awesome things, like I don’t want to just make something pretty for a girl. I want them to have some sort of epic fort space where they can rule..." |
Residencies: |
Work inspired by a place and created during a prescribe amount of time at that location.
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SporesGraphite on paper. 11 x 15 in. 2014
A collaborative drawing created with Zoe Keller. Featured in our book, “Intricacies,” the collection of drawings investigating observation and slowness can be purchased here. "...Zoe and I met in Maine. When we were both working for the beehive design collective I actually was part of the non profit a year before her and she came a year after and I went back out to the zip and we became friends. I really liked her illustration style and we kept in touch. I had this project idea and really wanted someone else who would put a lot of dedication into it and have that same technical craft..." "...We didn't actually do this at a residency. I mean, it kind of was like a residency but it was more like a DIY residency..." |
"...We wanted to make it as honest as possible. And when we sat down and talked about what the project meant to us a lot of the project was about us working through different kinds of healing that we were needing. Living out in the country and having this space to become accountable to ourselves and building friendship. Confronting some of our dark bits and encouraging our light bits..." |
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The Undoing20 x 25 in
Ballpoint and ink 2015 "...In Oregon right now there's this conversation about wolves and about whether they should stay or be removed from the endangered species list. And how they fit into the eco system. And then how ranchers feel about them... " "...I remember living in eastern Oregon and hearing a lot of talk about it. People just had very strong opinions one way or the other. I remember I wanted to make a piece that addressed the wolf story but also not take a side on it..." |
