10 Questions with Dominik Szymański

Born in 2005 in Poland, Dominik was raised in a small village. Throughout his short life, he often took part in local contests in the hope of showing people his worth and changing people’s perspective on creating. His romantic feelings towards art have been emerging in him since he was a little kid. Dominik, who is just finishing high school, hopes to make art that will appeal to people in some way and help them find themselves.

@domsroof

ARTIST STATEMENT

Dominik's work revolves around feelings. With his approach to making the viewer aware of his feelings and to show them something that they haven't been aware of, Dominik comes to create art that evokes emotions – Nostalgia being the most important. Dominik uses the imperfections and the lack of one specific technique to give the art a meaning, to make it feel more human.

With the new projects, Dominik breaks the boundaries – using other sources that accompany paintings, such as skits that help to create the whole world that lies in the artwork. Dominik is not just a painter – He's an artist that creates the whole world around his art.

"We all just try to be understood. It's better to be a misunderstood genius than to be a Man who You don't need to understand. I would like to do something that will make people feel love, feel lack of love, feel loneliness and feel comfort, feel like they are worth everything in the world. I would like to tell people to stay safe and care for themselves. That matters.” - Dominik Szymański

INTERVIEW

You are very young, yet you seem to have a very clear idea of what you want to achieve. What inspired you to pursue art as a form of expression, especially at such a young age?

I've always felt like I have something in my mind that I need to share. I think everybody has. Everybody can give back to the world in some way. It's just a matter of time before you realize you have great potential. And when you realize it, you try your best to make something out of it. I've always looked at the artists I admired - Jean-Michel Basquiat, André 3000, Frank Ocean, or even Polish ones like Stefan Gierowski, and thought - Why can't I be like that?

Can you share a bit about your background, growing up in a small village in Poland? How did your upbringing influence your interest in art?

Being from a small village, that was the whole world for me. Those landscapes and those people. I didn't realize that the world could be so big and so varied. However, I've always had the idea in mind that I am just the same as those big artists who are called geniuses. There is no difference between me, my friends, and them. I think I would like to show it through my art. That's how being born in such a small village influenced me - I got to see that everybody is the same, and everybody can do something great, no matter where you are from. The second thing is that in my village, the only type of art that was really being made and sold was the most realistic one. That was the metric people out there used to judge whether an artist is good or not. I wanted something new, I wanted to change that - the fact that the place I'm from doesn't understand abstract art made me an abstract artist. That's a funny paradox.

How do you describe the type of art you create? What themes or emotions do you aim to convey through your work?

I would describe my art as a mix of bittersweet emotions and a past experience everybody had once in their life.
I Think the most important feeling I show is nostalgia. The nostalgia that people can relate to. Sadness and loneliness play a huge role, too, but they are not as important to me as nostalgia. I've felt nostalgia my whole life, and I think it just makes me feel special. When it comes to themes - I feel like love is the most important one - unconditional love, real love, unrequited love, the list goes. The theme of love can be so varied, and that's what feels like the most important aspect of it. Apart from love, I aim to make something that will reveal some truths about the world. I am trying to depict my faith in God and religion nowadays, too. I need to speak about those themes in my work. I think it's important.

Could you walk us through your creative process when starting a new project? How do you go from an idea to a finished piece?:

The whole project often just starts when I get the first idea about it. Let's say I meet a beautiful person - I know the painting is gonna be about that person. That's the start. After that, everything comes into action. I try to think about the idea I want to portray and how to make it so that people can find themselves in it. In the process, that's all I'm really thinking about. I guess it has to mature in my mind enough before I put it on canvas. I have hundreds of projects that were never portrayed.
After I settle for a particular idea, everything just sort of happens itself. I try not to think about art when I'm making art; I try to think about the idea itself and the feelings I'm portraying, and the rest comes naturally - eventually creating an artwork. I just get those thoughts out of the blue and portray them.

What mediums do you prefer to work with, and why? Are there any techniques or styles you particularly enjoy exploring?

I really enjoy working on Canvas in a big format. I like to explore. I've never seen any of my friends working on Canvas that are larger than 80cm x 80cm. The idea that work of art can be bigger than that really excites me. To really be proud of my creation I have to make it big. It appeals to me. 
Medium speaking - I do use acrylics mixed with water most of the time. I like to use pastels, too - as an addition to really emphasize some things. I think it's the best fit for me. I use a really lousy way of applying paint onto canvas - as if I didn't want to correct the lines - that brings the feeling of imperfection to the viewer, which is important to understand the artwork. I do work on paper, too, but I've never felt truly fulfilled after creating something on it. When it comes to technique, I do not like to use any specific technique. I hope it gives the artwork a more human feeling. It's as raw and authentic as it can be that way, and that speaks to me.

In your statement, you mentioned wanting to appeal to people through your art and evoke emotions they may not have been aware of before. Can you expand on this idea and discuss how you strive to achieve it in your work?

They want to appeal to people, evoke emotions, and show them something that they haven't been aware of before, which is the main reason behind all my work. I think the world desperately needs artists who aim to help the viewers find themselves in art, understand their feelings, and even beyond that, make them aware of the feelings they didn't know about before. Finding yourself somewhere can really help You figure out what you feel. I know a lot of people who don't know what they are feeling - that's scary. The idea is to show them those feelings that they haven't acknowledged before, that they didn't know existed at the back of their mind.
I don't like being stuck in only one particular field. I think it's best to make people feel something when there are a lot of different things going on. Painting is the focal point, and the other things are the backstory to this one painting. Skits really give it a feeling - I actually produce them with Michał Galiński, a great musician. That's how I would like to get to people, by showing them the whole world that these artworks create. I would like to combine paintings, writings, questions, skits, and music as a whole project. That's the idea that might help people find themselves in my art. Because that's what it is about - finding the part of You that You always were, You just didn't know before. I feel kind of obliged to do it as an artist.

Where do you find inspiration for your art? Are there specific experiences, places, or people that influence your creative process?

I find inspiration in everything - life mostly. It's really just the life that inspires me - people, birds, places, experiences. I think my past experiences play a huge role - the most positive and the most negative ones. That's where the nostalgia comes from. I pour out something I experienced two years ago (f.e. a month I spent with a girl I was attracted to at the time) because I know it would relate to people - it's likely that they went through the same thing that I did. That's beautiful.
Music and movies often make a great impact on me when I'm creating. They inspire me and help me set a direction in which I want to go with the artwork. Great art makes great art.

As you transition from high school, do you have any future projects or goals you're looking forward to pursuing in your art career?

I would like to create the best paintings and the best art. A particular goal I currently have in mind would be a solo exhibition displaying paintings and the other forms of art I've talked about before. I would like to really create a new world that wouldn't be seen if it wasn't for me. Also, helping people manage their emotions, inspire them, maybe help them mature and find the part of them they didn't see before - that was always the main goal. That was always in my mind. I hope to achieve those goals in the future.

Looking ahead, what impact do you hope your art will have on your audience, and what legacy do you aspire to leave as an artist?

I aspire to leave people with a feeling of self and to give them hope. I aspire to leave people with the feeling that they can achieve anything they want to achieve. I want to make people feel something. I want to create a world that people can dive into when things in life get hard. I want to let people feel everything - feel love, lack of love, feel like they are worth everything in the world. I would like my art to speak for itself and to speak for people, too. I would like to make a difference.

And lastly, where do you see yourself in five years from now?: 

I see myself in a place where I can turn my creative output into something beautiful and am not limited by anything when it comes to creating. I want to be acknowledged as a real artist - painter, writer, maybe musician. I am currently working on a book, which is one of my biggest projects so far, and I see it resonates with people. I see myself high in the art world, creating something beautiful once in a while. I see myself having exhibitions all around the world at a tiny price so that everybody can experience the art. Art is for everybody. I see myself showing that to people.

Artist’s Talk

Al-Tiba9 Interviews is a promotional platform for artists to articulate their vision and engage them with our diverse readership through a published art dialogue. The artists are interviewed by Mohamed Benhadj, the founder & curator of Al-Tiba9, to highlight their artistic careers and introduce them to the international contemporary art scene across our vast network of museums, galleries, art professionals, art dealers, collectors, and art lovers across the globe.