About me
Małgorzata Pleśniak
In a small village at the Carpathian foothills, far away from big city lights, in a remote place surrounded by nature my first works came to life. They were mainly abstract oil paintings and stained glass. This form of expression, no matter how much fun it was, did not always work for me.
My first encounter with the icon surprised me a lot. Travelling to the opposite end of Poland I wondered what can be so exceptional in copying a painting. Returning home I already knew that I unexpectedly entered the path of the deepest spiritual experience, and the icon would become a very important tool in my life.
Icon writing
Writing an icon is like looking deep into our own eyes
Escaping from what we see is the easy way out. The tricky part is to remain there and accept it. And when you accept it, the next step is to experience the presence of the Absolute.
An icon, however, is not just an encounter. It is also a great teacher. After many hours spent working on an icon we come back to reality and want to retain the same patience in everyday life, which we had when we waited for the levkas to dry. We want to be as delicate and tender as when we were drawing the sketch on the prepared panel. As bright as the particles of gold. As pure as the colours we applied. As sure and decisive as strokes of the brush which must be precise and intended. As quiet as we were at the time when we had the feeling we were touching our soul. We want to live in such a way that we can preserve the order and be the observer and participant of “becoming”. Becoming as a process, as a change. We never begin the work on another icon being the same as before. Every icon is the whole new story.
Each icon is a different story and another moment in our life. We cannot judge someone’s sensitivity and internal struggle. An icon is an exploration, a process and a journey. It’s a dialogue. Every work is a tremendous lesson. Each of them discovers something new and makes us realise something else. It is an exceptional adventure full of surprises, as we never know what we are going to experience when we start writing an icon.