Woman wearing red hat Painting

I started painting out of ... boredom. In my second year of studies (Romance Languages at the Jagiellonian University of Krakow) I went down with rubella, right after I passed my last exam that year. It is a dangerous disease if you no longer are a kid. I had to stay at home for 3 weeks. With all my friends gone for holidays and no Internet (yes! it was about 20 years ago!), I had no other choice but to revert to an activity which used to be fun at school- painting, drawing, making sketches etc. Truth be told I had a great, passionate arts teacher at school. For the next couple of years I and my sketchbook were inseparable. France, Poland, Italy, Irelands, the USA- wherever I went the people, landscapes, situations, professors and simple commuters on the tram- everything was a great topic. Years went by, I got married and moved to Warsaw. At that time nothing gave me more adrenaline than work- I first worked for multinational companies, then in the public administration. Suddenly painting seemed meaningless. I worked 24/7 and chose only the most prestigious and challenging tasks. International environment, country branding, PR, lobbying, business trips - it all agreed perfectly with me to the point of spending a year in China. In the meantime I had two kids and wanted to slow down a little, but slowing down was far from easy to me- so I trained as mediator instead, then started mediating and teaching mediation and communications. Years went by and suddenly I felt my job was so repetitive and predictable. I mean it - how many great events can you work on? How many perfect brand messages can you devise? At how many conferences can you successfully speak promoting your country? In 2015 I got a feeling I was suffocating and a year later quit my job. Great adventure had begun. I went back to painting as a hobby. I took master classes to learn from great artists. When I was offered to organize my first exhibition in the fall 2017, I wasn't even surprised. Now I am my third and working on international opportunities.