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Joanna Tlok
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Initiation into art, and the life of a career artist, came to Joanna Tlok through a series of chance events. Her first experience in art-making came when she was seven years old. At the time, it was popular in her native Poland for children to keep diaries, to which their friends would make contributions.

When asked to add to such a diary that one of her friends was keeping, Joanna’s mother helped her compose a floral design to go with the note she composed. This activity so engaged Joanna that it launched a life of creative work. It took several more years, however, for the ambition of being a professional artist to take hold. At that pivotal point of adolescence when Poles finish primary school and have to choose a specialized secondary school which might determine their lifelong career path, Tlok still did not even know art was a possibility for her. Coming from a smaller town, she had no exposure to professional artists and knew nothing of art education at the secondary and college level. This is when pure coincidence once again entered the scene: During a brief hospitalization her mother had a roommate who was related to a student attending art school, and this chance meeting gave Joanna the direction she needed to get formal training in visual arts.

After years of work as a professional artist and a teacher in Poland, Tlok immigrated to the United States with her husband, Marek, and their children, where she has begun her career with a new audience. While Tlok’s paintings are figurative, color and light are, in fact, her true subject matter. Her two main vehicles for helping us appreciate these elements are her depictions of glass and fabric. She is always impressed with the play of light and shadow on the surface and interior of glass vessels and with the way shape and color are affected when glass overlaps. In her examinations of fabric,

Tlok finds gratification in bringing us uncommon studies of the commonplace. Fabric is so ubiquitous and plays such a huge role in everyday life – we wear it, sit on it, sleep under it, wash things with it, and use it as decoration – that people seldom take the time to appreciate its visual qualities and its interplay with light. This is what Tlok shows to us by making simple fabric the subject of thoughtful painting, and she hopes that her work will encourage people to notice the beauty of simple things in their everyday surroundings.



01/94 - Present Self Employed, Westland, Michigan ARTIST Painting, various art projects

09/82 - 09/86 Elementary School, Swidnica, Poland TEACHER - PRIMARY EDUCATION

01/84 - 12/85 Folk Cultural Center, Opoczka, Poland ARTIST / ART TEACHER

09/80 - 09/82 WARTEX CORPORATION, Swidnica, Poland FASHION DESIGNER Education \

09/84 - 09/86 Pedagogical College, Walbrzych, Poland FINE ARTS EDUCATION Degree: Associate,

1986 09/75 - 09/81 National Academy of Fine Arts, Wroclaw, Poland FINE ARTS Degree: Dipolma, 1981 Professional Achievments

2004 ~ present – Eclectic Art & Objects Gallery, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania - Display of current art works - (412) 734-2099 - www.EclecticArtGallery.com

2004 – The Artist of the Month on the website, www.ArtistsMagazine.com.

2003 – A piece "A TREE" has been selected as a finalist of the 20th Annual Artist's Magazine's Art Competition.

2003 – The finalists Exhibition at the International Show "Global ARTlook", MatrixArts Space, Sacramento, California.

2003 – The Scarab Club Silver Medal Annual Exhibition, Detroit, Michigan

2002 – First Place, The Seventeenth Annual Kubinski Art Competition, Orchard Lake Galeria, Michigan

2002 ~ 2004 – TRA Art Group, Troy, Michigan - Display of current art works

2002 ~ 2004 – R J Laney Design, Royal Oak, Michigan – Display of current art works

2002 – Merit Award, The Scarab Club Silver Medal Annual Exhibition, Detroit, Michigan

2001 – Best of Show, The Sixteenth Annual Kubinski Art Competition, Orchard Lake Galeria, Michigan

2001 – One-person exhibition at the Galeria Orchard Lake Schools, Orchard Lake, Michigan 2000 – One-person exhibition at the Gallery Birmingham, Birmingham, Michigan

1999 ~ 2002 – Gallery Birmingham, Birmingham, Michigan – Exhibition of current art works

1989 ~ 1991 – Vitro Art Gallery, Swidnica, Poland – Exhibition of current art works

1989 ~ 1991 – Create art pieces to specific orders

1981 – Museum of Contemporary Art, Wroclaw, Poland – Collective Exhibition 1981 – Nomination of art piece for Diploma

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