By Elizabeth Baldino
Freshly immigrated to the United States, Oliwia Klisiewicz couldn’t read many books as she was still learning English. But what she could do is look at pictures. In a National Geographic catalog picked up by small shy hands in the elementary school library, Klisiewicz saw a picture of a cave painting from the Paleolithic period titled “Chinese Horse” that transcended language and borders.
With paper and pencils she sat down to replicate it. Then she drew it again, and again, and again. And thus, a love of creating art of horses was born in a child that desperately needed it. Klisiewicz is a senior graphic design major creating a senior project on the anatomy of horses, girlhood, notalgia and the relationships a rider can and should grow with their animals.
Could you describe to me a few of your favorite pieces in the show?
This one painting is the centerpiece or the holy figure within the show, which is a portrait that I painted of my horse Paris. Every time I look at it, I take a break for 10 to 15 minutes because I drew her and painted her from memory and it came out so well. I think about her all the time. There is also this handmade book that I made that encapsulates my whole childhood and what it was like to grow up as a noncitizen. The things I had to do and the things that my parents had to sacrifice for me to have a better life in the U.S. It tells this Polish story that I think about quite a lot, about a horse that worked in the mines, and towards the end, he is able to find freedom. I relate to that. My grandma and my parents would always read that story to me, and I relate it to my immigration journey, where I'm seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.
When people go to your show (March 19 through the 21 in the Forum Art Space inside The Stood), what can they expect in a visual sense?
I wanna say memories, nostalgia, childlike wonder. There will be striking imagery but very playful pieces mixed in. So, a broad range of emotions. For the most part, it's gonna be a very positive, exciting experience to bring people together.
In your own words, what is your senior project?
It started off as just like another design project, but when I look deeper into it, it's kind of like opening and closing a chapter of my life. I'm grieving a loss or hobby of horse riding to open up the new chapter of getting into the art world and graphic design. Of course, I'm still gonna have courses and riding and stuff in my life, but it's not gonna be the focal point anymore.
What's the main emotion you feel going forward with your senior project?
In the beginning, it was a little somber, but now I feel I reached the last stage of grieving, which is acceptance. I'm excited and I'm proud to show it. I love talking about it all the time. [Laughs] I'm excited to see the actual physical manifestation, which is gonna be like a book that I'm gonna make.
When you mentioned how intrinsically connected girlhood was to your project, it really struck a chord. Do you think your art captures that sense of girlhood, if so, how?
I feel yes. Growing up specifically, I feel like- this is such a niche thing, but I had these cards called Bella Sara cards. They're basically like Pokémon cards or any collectible card, except they were just horses [Laughs]. There were different types of colorful horses and unicorns and Pegasus. With that, I feel like that inspired a lot of my work. There's always this loose carefree rhythm within my work. It's not cookie-cutter clean work.
What about horses really connects with you to the point of inspiration?
Visually I think they're very beautiful animals. But it's also the emotions around the animal itself. When I first saw a horse, I was just like, “Whoa, what?” There’s this sense of freedom they have. They're very empathetic animals and I find that so inspiring, but also scary at the same time.
What's your end goal? When you're done with everything, what do you hope to have accomplished?
A better understanding for the equine community to have a thing to look back and reference because I feel like knowledge could separate us, but I want it to unite us. There's so many different opinions, differences in viewpoints and perspectives within the riding and community. I feel like a lot of that's not really seen out on the outside or even on the inside. I really, really wanted it to be like a unit. I want it to be accessible to everybody.
Why make your upcoming show collaborative? Why not just something you do solo?
The more people I met, the more people would just come up to me and be like, “You're the horse girl!” I just wanted the friends and the people that I met along the way to join me on this journey within the art world. I made so many long-term friendships and relationships because of just people coming up to me and asking me questions about horses. I want to incorporate the community within my show. Have their perspective and ideas about horses, because people that don't know horses well say the most funny and peculiar things about them.
Do you think people overlook or misunderstand when they see you as just a horse girl? Or do you feel like that's a fair characterization?
I feel like it's fair, but also a thing that people will tend to overlook is not me being a queer woman, but me specifically being an immigrant. I feel like I've always had a struggle of representing that within my work. I love my Polish side and I always connect with it at home or with my parents. I still speak Polish and communicate in Polish. I feel like that identity is something that I struggle with a little bit. I feel like- I don't want to say that I'm not Polish enough, but there's like this separation from me and my family. Even though I'm fluent in Polish there's still this separation. They view me as an American, but I feel like I don't fit as an American. There is a piece at my show that kind of shows that.
Could you tell me a little bit about that piece?
My friend Jace followed me around all day. I had to stop by the barn and just do a couple of things and he was just following me around really quietly. He didn't tell me, but at the end of the day, he documented what I was doing and how I was interacting with the environment and with the horses, and my family. I couldn't comprehend or even think about what I look like in his perspective, because he knows so much about me and my background. I feel like he captured him in such a way that I couldn't directly think of.
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