by Jacek Kaczyński

Jacek Kaczyński, born in 1965, is a Polish illustrator and graphic artist. Over the years he has worked in publishing houses and advertising agencies, and has been a freelance illustrator since 2003. His works has been published in magazines, books and CD covers in several countries in Europe, Asia and America.

"I understand reality in a little magic way. I hate literalness. I love subjectivity, ambiguity and understatement. If the illustration is only a simple reflection of the text, then it is dead for me. A good illustration must engage in a dialogue with the written word, smuggling its own, apocryphal version of the tale. I consistently avoid literalness in my graphics, giving up the strict control, letting them go astray and cavort. I open the contents of the subconscious. I talk with the drawing, quarrel with it, but I also listen to what it says to me. When I use the symbols, their meaning is not immediately clear, even to me. I start to understand it and respond to the drawing. I have fun if the picture surprises me. I'm happy if the recipient does something similar when he sees a picture, if he takes the trouble to read, in his own way, the tale recorded there. Each picture has many stories to tell. In my works I pay attention to everything that is individual, personal, internal. This is of course in opposition to everything that is social, organized and official. So it appears that in my heart I am an anarchist."