A Conversation 

Editor: I’m looking at Iwo Zaniewski's acrylic painting titled "A Conversation". The heavy strokes give it a kind of hauntingly domestic mood, as though we are viewing a moment of intense emotional reckoning, even in its stillness. What strikes you about this work? Curator: What strikes me? Hmm. It feels like we’ve stumbled into someone else's dream, doesn’t it? These two figures are rendered so sparsely, almost as caricatures, but the way they inhabit that vaguely modernist interior feels intensely real. Almost as though memory is doing its own distorting paint job on reality. The room feels stifling, yet comforting. What do you make of their postures? Editor: I get the feeling the figure on the left is feeling burdened or shut down and the figure to the right seems observant, maybe accusatory, though it is hard to say, with the way the subjects have been depicted. Do you think that says something about their relationship? Curator: Possibly, though perhaps the painting is about how *we* relate, or long to relate, with each other. Conversations are complex, full of implicit negotiations and compromises, much like paintings themselves. Each brushstroke, a decision; each color, a statement. Look at the shadow and the light play, it looks heavy-handed, no? What does it reveal, I wonder, or conceal? It invites our inner critic in to scrutinize and question. Editor: So you see the setting almost as a stage for that inner questioning, more than a personal snapshot? Curator: Exactly! These modern, yet vintagey settings are usually like a space for the existential play – "Who are we", and “Why are we here?”. And then Zaniewski plants these near-anonymous figures inside… The scene, so loaded with our own anxieties, practically begs for our personal projection. So really, who do you *think* these figures *are*, really? Editor: That’s an interesting take – I hadn't considered how much I was bringing to it. Curator: Art holds the mirror to reflect yourself! Thanks to this piece, I am now very self-aware of how I communicate...or fail to communicate. What about you? Editor: You are absolutely correct, the figures are mere prompts for my own internal interpretation!