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Maria Mazuchova
SLOVAKIA
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“Being able to think and create in absolute freedom is the biggest gift to humankind from God.”
Maria Mazuchova is a self-taught artist based in Slovakia, Central Europe. She began her journey in 2014 as a photographer, and years later, in 2020, she discovered her passion for painting, digital art, and design. She currently creates her own project called Royal Eyes. Mostly influenced by Salvador Dalí since her youth, she infuses her works with surrealism and explores unusual connections and paradoxes within realistic portraiture.
Enchanted | Oil
NA
47 X 47
The painting 'Enchanted' explores love as a universe. It compares it to a dance during which our thoughts flourish, leaving an imprint on our minds and bodies. When love flows, the steps are unintended, yet correct, spontaneous, and beautiful. But when it doesn't, the steps are calculated.
From a very young age, Maria has felt the call of the artist within her. Often finding solace in the pages of books and the landscapes of her imagination during her solitary childhood, she began crafting her own worlds through writing stories and poems during her teenage years. Later on, she became captivated by photography as a way to share her imagination with the outer world.
Enchanted Too | Oil
NA
47 X 47
Enchanted Too is the continuation of the first Enchanted painting.
The artist held her first compact camera at the age of 14, photographing landscapes, flowers, and bees. She then experimented with more advanced cameras, but it was not until the age of 21 that she bought her first basic DSLR camera and approached photography more seriously.
“It didn’t take long for me to realize that traditional photography did not satisfy me.”
Traditional photography failed to fully capture the fantastical realms that Maria envisioned. She was quickly drawn to photo manipulations and started to utilize digital software to help her bring her visions to life. Despite her love for beauty and artistry, Maria decided not to pursue formal education in any arts. Instead, she focused on the studies of International Relations, which embodied her other interests, the world itself.
A Window (Through Which the Darkness Recedes) | Oil
NA
20 X 16
This painting is a creation from the subconscious. I was experimenting with dramatic lighting and intentionally not thinking too much. It is not about what exactly one should see, but what one could feel. The feeling is hope. In the midst of the unknown, in the scary darkness, hope is the strength that carries us forward and lights our way.
Minerva is the goddess of creativity. As a goddess, her head is in the sky, with a yellow triangle representing the sun. There are seven birds in rainbow colors, symbolizing fullness and completeness. The rainbow represents protection, hope, and promises. The birds are flying from the sky around her head like thoughts, down to the earth, to us, as divine touches of creativity from above, inspiring us.
Minerva | Oil
NA
53 X 37
Maria Mazuchova started painting only years later, in 2020. The first colors she used were watercolors, but she quickly found out it was not her destined medium. It was only oil painting that gave her the proper satisfaction and allowed her to achieve the results she had in mind.
“Each of our individual inner worlds is the greatest blessing. We reside within them, so it's important to nurture them kindly.”
“As a layperson, I was hypnotized by the absurd images that I knew held some deep meaning. They were riddles out of this world, and I often found myself just staring at them on the internet, imagining what Salvador Dalí could have thought or felt when creating them.”
Looking at Salvador Dali’s work, she felt like he must have ascended to some higher state of thinking or a different dimension, and he was now bringing messages from that realm to her, presenting them in a bizarrely amusing way. In fact, she was fascinated by the endless possibilities one could argue about or feel while observing Dalí’s work. This has probably left the deepest imprint on her own work.
Head in the Clouds | Oil
NA
24 X 16
This painting offers a surreal interpretation of the expression "having one's head in the clouds."
In her creations, daydreaming meets the “real” world. The subjects of her works are mostly humans themselves and humanity as a whole. She captures the psychology, philosophy, and spirituality of human existence, resulting in global events or strong personal moments.
Feelings | Oil
NA
24 X 16
The painting Feelings is a simple meditation on what we feel at the moment. What is our experience at this exact second? How aware are we of our emotions? Do we realize that we are more than our feelings and thoughts? We are the masters, and we can channel them. Our existence is exciting and full of the unknown, abundant in possibilities.
Maria loves to examine and explore the impact of individual human souls on humanity as a massive body of energy or to simply capture one individual story or feeling. Her works can be painfully critical of the world's selfishness or sensitively describe human gentleness, sometimes alternating between the two.
The Monarch is another 'subconscious painting', depicting a queen who hides herself behind socially plausible behavior instead of expressing herself fully and openly. Just because she sometimes can't deal with her gentleness, she does things at her own expense. This painting is a call for her to break the pattern and shatter the pieces.
The Monarch | Oil
NA
39 X 27
“For me art is freedom and I love freedom the most of all.”
Elon Must | Oil
NA
39 X 31
The Elon Must painting mocks the visionary. However, in mocking him, it also mocks us because we often act in the same manner. Instead of working to repair things or making them work, we often consider discarding them. Instead of correcting our flawed behavior, we tend to seek conquests in other worlds. In this painting, Elon is depicted on a quest on Mars. He must. He can’t help himself; he can’t think differently. As we can’t help ourselves being lazy to do the right thing.
Painting serves as a medium through which she directs attention toward certain social or individual issues she believes many of us perceive as burning. Through her works, she hopes to amplify the voices of such topics, aiming to provoke raw emotions. She sees emotions as the truest expressions of humanness.
The naming “Call to Action” originates from the marketing environment, known as "CTA". It is the button that, when pushed, leads you to the action. This painting addresses everything, whether big or small, that we know is the right thing to do but we often fail to act upon due to laziness or comfort. From the largest environmental issues to the smallest personal matters, it urges us to take action, as action is the remedy.
Call to Action Button | Oil
NA
35 X 24
Regarding style, Maria’s works tend to be painted realistically with an abstract touch or bizarre shapes that complement the overall composition. However, she places greater importance on the idea and concept behind each piece, striving for a slightly surreal quality that provokes thought and invites philosophical contemplation. She primarily employs oil paints as her medium, occasionally incorporating acrylics to achieve particular effects.
The Peacock |Acrylic
NA
35 X 24
"The Peacock" is a modern-retro design experiment executed with acrylic paints. It presents a surreal representation of the beauty of a peacock.
“My paintings are not just ‘what’ I paint, but rather ‘about what’ I paint.”
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