Biography

I am moved by nature’s abstractions. I paint from my soul, for my soul and feel the peace, beauty, spontaneity and emotionality of the universe. I feel art should be freeing and have no rules. How else can we express ourselves?

Art from the Soul

"Perhaps the most treasured of all things to have is freedom. Freedom to be oneself, to be expressive and to be afforded the luxury of letting go. Abstract Artist Geraldine "Gerry" K. Czajkowski wouldn't have it any other way."                 

Excerpted from a feature article about Czajkowski titled “Art from the Soul” by Tara Tobias Fair, The Sunday Star Democrat August 18, 2002

In second grade our teacher played Rachmaninoff and asked us to paint to the music - - to close our eyes and let our emotions guide our tempera paint - - to imagine what the music communicated to us. My interpretation was a splattered mess of perhaps fish in the sea? My first abstract!

After studying for five years with a local Bethesda artist painting still lifes, portraits and traditional landscapes, I majored in fine art at Ohio University where the student was encouraged to express emotion on canvas. I came to admire the New York School of Abstract Expressionism – Rivers, DeKooning, Frankenthaler, Johns, Guston  .  .  .

A career in patent illustration encouraged the use of graphic content in my paintings. Today, my textured paintings begin with the mystery of the unplanned. I let the paint guide me instead of my guiding the paint. I explore shifting color and visual harmony using a myriad of textures from handmade papers, textured gels, metal leafs, burlap, pumice, and found objects to name a few. I’m always looking to be surprised by what will emerge.

Interpretations of the universe and natural phenomena are ever present in my organic paintings and always an underlying thread. Texture is the vehicle.