PROFESSIONAL INFORMATION
Linda Rzoska is an artist and teacher. She joined the faculty at Kalamazoo Valley Community College in 2000 where she currently teaches Design, Illustration and Motion Graphics. She is the Program Coordinator of KVCC’s Center for New Media. Before joining KVCC Rzoska worked in the corporate/private sector as a graphic designer and illustrator. She has received a number of awards for her illustration and fine art, notable are two International Awards of Excellence from the Society for Technical Communications.
Educated as a fine artist, Rzoska has continued with her fine art career - her current work being inspired by her interest and research in nature, folklore, mythology and comparative religion. Rzoska’s artwork has been selected for numerous juried shows and is represented in many private collections. She has been an artist in residence at the Burren College of Art in Ireland. Her most recent solo exhibits were in It Skildershuis Atelier in Leeuwarden, The Netherlands and The Burren College of Art, Ireland.
ARTIST STATEMENT
From my experiences I see that many of us in western civilization are living in a wasteland of sorts. What do I mean by “wasteland”? The author Nigel Pennick tells us that through our human history and ancestry we have had a collective cultural relationship with the landscape. He explains that we are not separate from the landscape - we are part of it. Reality is what we walk, see, touch, and experience. Pennick states that the “wasteland” comes when the living landscape is rejected or ignored and when humans, in favor of material wealth, abandon the spiritual aspect of nature.
The northern and western European folk tradition is particularly rich in tales regarding this spiritual aspect of nature or the “spirit of the land”. I have traveled throughout 15 countries that share this folk tradition and have, many times, experienced this atmosphere or presence in the landscape that seems to exist beyond the everyday realm of my modern human cognizance.
In my current artwork I am striving to visually communicate this spirit or soul of a place that I have witnessed along with the human collective relationship with the landscape. I attempt to not only reproduce what I see through my eyes but also create a visual representation of what I experience. The artwork visually displays a personal sense of spiritual connection and an invisible and inaudible communication. It is created to honor all the living things that exist in every aspect of the landscape. Often I portray this life in human form in order to relay the precious and beautiful qualities of all life. On the whole, the imagery in the artwork is meant to represent a sense of life with no limitations of space and time, a sharing of spirit, mind and heart, a spiritual recognition and belonging, a joining in an ancient and eternal way.
Spiral Engravings, Newgrange Passage Tomb, Co. Meath, Ireland, circa 3200 BC
EDUCATION
Aquinas College
2005 M.M. School of Management
Area of Concentration: Arts Management and Curriculum Development
Western Michigan University
1978 - 1983 Graduate Studies Department of Art
Area of Concentration: Painting
Western Michigan University
1976 Bachelors Degree Department of Art
Area of Concentration: Painting
Exhibiting Artist
1976 to Present
Faculty / Program Coordinator
Center for New Media
Kalamazoo Valley Community College
Kalamazoo, Michigan
2000 to Present
Faculty
Kalamazoo Valley Community College
Kalamazoo, Michigan
1999 to 2000
Freelance Illustrator
1995 to Present
Principal / Creative Director
Design & Illustration Associates, Inc.
Kalamazoo, Michigan
1981 to 1996
Graphic Designer / Illustrator
Eaton Corporation
Kalamazoo, Michigan
1979 to 1980
Illustrator
Kalamazoo Manufacturing
Kalamazoo, Michigan
1976 to 1979
All Images copyright Linda Rzoska
Permission may be given for use of images.
Study for artwork representing the
Spirit of the Land
Graphite
