Daydreaming

Imagine you've just spent a night reading Arthur C. Clarke, or Larry Niven, or John Varley. You fall asleep and begin to dream. colorful, startling dreams of enigmatic beings caught between the child and the angel, growing who knows how or where. That is the impact of Slawek Wojtowicz's art! Greg Bear, SF writer Among those artists in the top professional leagues, few show the same verve and imagination and sheer enthusiasm as Slawek Wojtowicz. As an author, I especially appreciate another trait. he actually reads books! That's a wonderful combination. David Brin, SF writer Stepping into the worlds of Slawek Wojtowicz is an ecstatic pleasure as he melds the plausible with the fantastic. From walking on a windswept, barren snow world to traveling into the depths of steel canyons in Manhattan, 3000 AD, a sense of wonderful surprise and constant familiarity follows us from image to image. It is a journey I look forward to each time I visit his art. Donato Giancola, SF artist The one aspect I find most appealing about the artwork of Slawek Wojtowicz is the dreamlike quality of the imagery: the subjects, the color, the way objects interact and flow together. Horizons curve, planets float in dream oceans, dream people float in mid-air. And then there are the cityscapes - my own dreams are completely inane, for the most part, but the ones I like the best [when I remember them at all] have to do with cities, and people I have never seen, and they have an ineffable poetic dreaminess about them that I find in Slawek's paintings. The gentleman who taught my college Introduction to the Arts class, Mr Carlyn, used to say that every great painting had a surrealistic quality to it; that, howeversubtle or illusive, the dreamlike aspect was an essential ingredient to great work. A perfect example is the circular Madonna and the Infant Savior by Raphael, the one in the National Gallery in Washington, DC. Or any pictures by Van Eyck, or Arnold Bocklin. Another example is Bargemen of the Volga, by Illya Repin, and so on and on. But with these paintings by Slawek, the dream-quality is effortless, as natural as breathing. Now I am wondering - what does Slawek dream about, when he is actually asleep? Steve Hickman, SF artist