Katherine ZAŁĘSKA (Alanama-ha, b. 1987), Birds, 2019

mixed technique (rapidograph, watercolor, gouache), paper, 29.7 x 21 cm, framed: 50 x 40 cm, signed on the back

Catherine's artistic education began as a child, when she sought a means of expression for her inner world. And so her experimental path developed through many fields of art such as photography, dance, music, poetry, digital graphics, until finally these experiments led her to discover and become passionate about easel painting. She explored many of these forms of expression during her five-year studies at the Wladyslaw Strzeminski Academy of Fine Arts in Lodz, during which she spent a year on an Erasmus student exchange in Turkey. There she learned the subtle secrets of Tezhip, or traditional Quranic ornamentation.



Toward the end of her studies, she wanted to taste a more practical use of the visual arts, so she was hired at the Naima design studio. The owner of this studio was Moroccan, the client was Swiss and the production was located in Lodz, which, in addition to training in creation, was also training in communication between the three worlds and their different needs and abilities.



After college, led by her love for the man, she entered the tattoo world full of dark potential, for which she had her own vision. She wanted to create new, more radiant opportunities for the tattooist to meet the viewer of his art. This desire manifested itself in the creation of an unforgettable, colorful, Wroclaw tattoo studio with the sonorous name Like from a Picture, by her and her then partner.



From 2021, she entered the next stage of her creation, also on the level of artistic identity. It was then that Alanama- Ha was born. At this stage, she gradually redirected the azimuth of her work from tattooing to painting and designing prints for textiles. She has already collaborated with fashion brands such as Wear Medicine, Jaroslaw Ewert, BandaBag and Mato.



Recently, her paintings were an integral part of the vibrational transformation at the Orgazmi event organized by Ludwika Shukuma Holub at Harmony Spheres, which is a living gallery and actually a work of art.