Michael Zadowicz
Crayons of My Creativity
Age: 75
Artist Statement
My name is Michael Zadowicz, and I live in Los Angeles.
Going way back into my life while I was in grade school, coloring my drawings with crayons, I had two older sisters on the verge of graduating from high school. That age difference at that time of life was profound. Their daily dramas dominated the center of attention in our family, and they were constantly praised for their physical beauty by everyone.
Observing this as I grew up, the idea of what female beauty actually was, I think, was born into me. Studying them visually from afar helped me develop an aesthetic sense of how I saw beauty in women, probably a touchstone moment for me. I came to utilize it in my future work, the sculptural design of mannequins, as I fell into the unique world of visual merchandising and spent several decades with a creative team building them.
So now in hindsight, I feel there was a part of my sisters that went into every model I worked with. The foundational aesthetic values that came into existence in my youth helped carry me forward on my life journey.