Feature Edition #9 - August 2007: Winston Chmielinski - Featured Artist Interview

This month we caught up with the much talked about painter, Winston Chmielinski. Winston has been a part of Codrv for over five months now and in that time has contributed eleven original submissions. The quality of his work is outstanding and both Evran and I felt that it was time to see the man behind the art.

Richard Box:

If you could just start by giving us a bit of a run down of the 'behind the scenes' Winston Chmielinski and how he approaches life and all the challenges and joys that come with it.

Winston Chmielinski:

I approach life with coffee in one hand, bag in the other, and contacts stiff in place. And I gotta say my bag and its contents are quite revealing: filled with random tidbits, rarely cleaned out, conducive to forgetfulness, all strewn around that collective anthology, the sketchbook, wherein scribbled ideas, sketches, shopping lists, to-do lists, journal entries, and phone numbers can actually co-exist.

It feels like a lifetime since I started painting at 16, and I just got back from a year in France, the memories from which should be enough to make 18 seem longer than all of my high school years combined. On top of that, I just turned 19. Imagine!

Richard Box:

France? That certainly must have been an experience. What were you over there for, and what were the highlights of your stay?

Winston Chmielinski:

I took a year between high school and university to "adjust", which I most definitely tackled head-on by throwing myself into a city where I knew no one, didn't speak the language all that well, and didn't really have the financial means to live "comfortably." I enrolled in a university, and took courses in anything that the professors would let me take at my language level. The entire trip was a highlight, but especially about four months in when I started to feel like I belonged, and when I could bump around on my undersized racing bike and not get lost. Paris is a confusing city, and superficially the collective mentality may come off as a teeny bit cold, so to find people that represented my "home" over there was in the end my greatest achievement and a serious relief.

Richard Box:

So after the courses you took at France, is there a particular field you’re planning to study in at university in the coming year?

Winston Chmielinski:

Hah. If anything I'm more confused, what with the courses I didn't want to take, at first, but later found unexpectedly interesting. But I can say a few things with confidence: that painting evens out the internal pressure in my head - so I must continue whether on the side or through classes - and that I need to balance my distracted, somewhat dreamy nature with overwhelming writing assignments, outside activities, city life, and the slappage of a deadline on top of it all.

Richard Box:

Speaking on the subject of your paintings, are you finding much luck selling your artwork currently, and do you have plans to work in this field in the future.

Winston Chmielinski:

I have been very fortunate with sales, to the point that I now own only a few of my works, those being the very latest and earliest. I find it difficult to sit down even for a day and paint, so to do that day after day... I have to explore that idea. We'll see in a few years' time.

Richard Box:

The majority of your work has a very abstract sense to it, can you give us a quick explanation of the things that go through your mind when creating work like this, and what inspires you to create such emotive artwork.

Winston Chmielinski:

Abstraction for me is spontaneity, the un-worked effects of colors on canvas; free to drip, mix, even to fade away (the beauty of water-soluble media is its range of translucencies, which I definitely like to experiment with). But of course, it has to correspond to the representation and contained human elements in my paintings... which is why, when I paint, the latter comes first (in idea and process), and the abstraction continues around it. Most recently I've tried to make it more of a cohesive whole, so no longer is the abstraction so strictly confined by human forms. I'm beginning to see them equally, so that the focus isn't so much on the figure as it is on everything that's going on, to where any small section of the painting can hold its own ground.

Richard Box:

You mentioned before that you were 16 when you started painting, what got you started with this medium, and was this the first artistic medium you took up, or have there been others?

Winston Chmielinski:

My high school art class provided a set of paintbrushes and oil paints. I didn't know of anything else, so I stuck with the oils until spring of that year when I discovered acrylics. Fast drying paint! Miracles I say. My first acrylic painting was almost kaleidoscopic with colors and layers... and once I got going with acrylics, and could use water to clean up, I began to experiment with anything 2D that would stick on canvas - paper, plastic, cloth - and then with stencils and spray-paint. It wasn't until France, where acrylics were the expensive option, that I experimented with water-soluble oils and found that I really appreciated the workability of a slower-drying medium, without the mess and toxicity of standard oils. Now I just say to hell with it and combine everything.

Richard Box:

Do you have a favorite artist? If so, who are they and why do you like their work?

Winston Chmielinski:

Limiting myself to the last few centuries (and avoiding contemporaries)... I'd have to say Egon Schiele. Plainly said his style is strong, bold. He stands out, and his rejection of the classical standards, techniques, even the traditional media of "fine art" (at that time) results in something so raw and beautiful. And his lines, and forms! Pure genius.

Richard Box:

And do you feel he has influenced your work to a certain degree?

Winston Chmielinski:

Most definitely. My art teacher got me a book of Schiele's work as a graduation prize, and I remember flipping through it almost every day. I never tried to copy his style, but something in his forms and colors would awaken these ideas in me which, to my delight, came forth in their own peculiar ways.

Richard Box:

Do you see a possibility in trying other mediums such as digital in the future, or are you happy with what your using now?

Winston Chmielinski:

I would never close myself off to other media, but there's something about bringing home a white canvas, painting over it, and then reminiscing its blank days with intense nostalgia. I enjoy the "chance" creations of wet paint, paintbrushes, and lots of space... and the traces and memories left and rediscovered on a studio’s walls and floor.

Richard Box:

Ok, well thank-you for participating in the interview, and congratulations on becoming the Codrv Featured Member. Have you got any shout outs to end it off?

Winston Chmielinski:

Just a big boisterous echoing shout out to you for choosing me and taking the time! Thanks.