Katka Pinosova

There is nobody else I know who is as daring in exploring our internal landscape as my friend Katerina Pinosova. In fact, it takes courage to open "the door that leads into madness" as Christopher Morley put it. In some cases, the world behind this door can be so fascinating and seductive, that the real challenge is to not open it fully, but keep it only "ajar".

Katka is an accomplished surrealist artist, a writer and a translator. If you're among those thinking that surrealism is a thing of the past, make sure to check out http://www.surrealismus.cz/pinosova where you can find Katka's drawings, sculptures, jewelery and bio. It represents only a sliver of her works, but it's a start.

Katka had been an active member of the Czech and Slovak surrealist group, a vibrant community of artist and writers who work within this genre. I'm not going to start analyzing and defining any of the surrealism versus neo-surrealism issues here, as it goes completely against my grain. If you're not familiar with artistic movements, check out Wikipedia or your local library. But mostly, approach the art for what it is, develop your own symbolism and understanding of it - find your own meaning.

This kind of art gives you a glimpse of the artist's internal, subconscious world, which may or may not be only their own. Or is it a paralel world outside of us that she simply taps into while we don't? Maybe you've met some of Katka's creatures in your dreams, maybe they are in fact just hers. Who knows? In my own art, I'm so deeply oriented toward the world outside of me, that these explorations of the internal landscape are like exotic journeys for me. I'm a big fan of Katka's work.

But I also admire Katka on the personal level. I watched her grow as a person and everytime I see her, which, unfortunately, is not very often, I see a lot of progress. Her site does not reveal the fact that all her drawings are composed of thousands of little dots and thin lines - the kind of work requiring enormous patience, a lot of time and true determination.

She also had to learn to switch her fantasy world "on and off" to be able to create and yet function in the "normal world" as well. As I'm totally guilty of dissolving into my work, forgetting time, forgetting to get up and stretch perodically, seeing the level of Katka's discipline was a great inspiration for me. Most people think artists are undisciplined (and many may be) but one close look at Katka's art makes you realize that in this case, it takes a lot more than just wild fantasy.