If my parents had had their way I would have been an engineer. Although I studied Electrical Sciences in my native Poland, I never completed my degree. I was yearning to learn a craft, to shape things with my hands. So, instead of fulfilling a parental ambition I became a silversmith. As Gdansk has a fine tradition in gold and silversmithery it was not too hard to find a silversmith to take me in. After three years of apprenticeship in Gdansk’s leading workshop I passed my journeyman exam and shortly after I got my Master’s Certificate. At the same time I was spending my evenings in a sculptor’s studio next to my silversmithing workshop carving in wood and later creating sculptures in bronze.
In 1982 I migrated to Australia. The richness and beauty of Australian fauna and flora boosted my creativity profoundly and I became well known as a creator of many designs depicting Australian animals and flowers. From the beginning I was selling my works through Seasons Gallery in North Sydney, Beaver Gallery in Canberra and Maker’s Mark in Melbourne. While living in Sydney I attended workshops with well-known sculptor John Gardner and made works mainly in bronze. Shortly after my move to Brisbane in 1988 I started to work in stone and operate now from my studio in Brisbane. Apart from bronze, I work in marble, granite, sandstone; and black Chillago marble is my favourite stone. In 1997 I stopped working as a silversmith and now I work as a full time sculptor.
Working for many years as a silversmith I developed a great need for details and even now when I sculpt on a large scale I cannot divorce myself from it. Although the amount of time I spend on each sculpture increases enormously, the more it takes the better. I guess, I want to enjoy every piece of stone as long as possible. I love to carve in marble the most intricate and crisp lines and unforgiveness of stone makes it more challenging. I create both figurative and abstract works and there are always several of them in my studio to appreciate.
