If you happen to find yourself in the Korreweg district and look in through the windows a little while walking around, you might just spot a huge collection of colorful paintings in one of the terraced houses: this is where Inka Markowski (1989) works and lives. Raised in New Mexico (USA), where she also attended art academy, Markowski has been painting in Groningen for over four years now.
“My studio is my dining room. I've been doing a lot of paintings lately on small wooden circles and they happened to be on the table when some friends came over for dinner. A friend asked: 'Is this art or is this a coaster?' I went to explain the whole story and finally he concluded: 'But I can't put my glass on it?'
I dream of having my own studio. I would prefer a very large room with lots of light and windows, but it doesn't necessarily have to be somewhere else. I think then maybe it would be like going to the gym – oh, it's raining, I'm not going today. It is precisely because I work at home that I paint more than if I had a separate studio, I think. I also don't get distracted by things here: when I paint, I'm focused on that. But it's still inconvenient now and then, when people pass by and you have to warn that works are still wet. And the dining room is still a dining room, so at the end of the evening I clean everything up again.
Lately I've been quite busy, because exhibitions are coming up. At Gallery H200 I exhibit my series of paintings Mapping, in which I use maps as a starting point. Maps give a lot of information about a place, but not necessarily an idea of what it looks like there, I find that interesting. When I start a new painting, I often first look at my atlases, looking for beautiful shapes. I combine these into a certain composition and work over it with oil paint. It's a pretty intuitive process. Recently I have also been more concerned with the wood grains in the wooden panels on which I often work. I find it very interesting to start with a basic shape and then see what can come out of it.
In addition, I work thirty hours a week as a legal registration officer at the Land Registry. When I'm done there, I go home and then I start painting, about five o'clock, and then I work until about ten or eleven in the evening. I just schedule that time; there are all blocks in my agenda marked with 'PAINT'. I took that step two years ago. At first I mainly painted from the idea that I had to have inspiration. But at some point I found out that it just has to be a daily thing, so I have a rhythm and the inspiration comes naturally. That discipline helps me. I take my painting very seriously in addition to my other work, but I also know that I am less creative when I am under financial stress. I have experimented with that: what happens when I work a little more or a little less? I have now found a balance in which I have enough time for my art, but also have financial stability.
I often work on several paintings at the same time, also on the same evening, because oil paint dries slowly. When I move on to another work, I often put it in front of me and then I go and look at it for a while. But there is also a lot throughout the house. Because the works are always around me, I can also think about it a lot, and then I can get to work right away."
The space in which an artist works is a place where day in, day out plodding, planing and measuring, where a creative product is created and where people think. In this series, visit Groningen artists at their workplace. What are they currently working on? What does their working day look like? And what do they do to relax?
Please note: this article has been translated using Google Translate