Irmina Wachna-Sosin

Year of birth: 1981.
Where do you live: Tarnów, Poland.
Your education: Master degree: Management in Education (Jagiellonian University), Curriculum and Teaching (Bowling Green State University) Postgraduate studies: Project Evaluation (University of Warsaw), Food and Design (Academy of Fine Arts, Łódź) Trainings: School of Trainers, School of Coaching, Schools of Facilitators, Art Therapy Academy.
Describe your art in three words: intuitive, growing, emotional.
Your discipline: Mom of three kids, wife, entrepreneur, collage artist, art therapist.
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 Irmina Wachna-Sosin | Time| 2024

Your journey to becoming an artist started after a career in adult education and organization development. What inspired you to transition into creating analog collages?

Yes, it was after ten years in organizational development and then after another 7 years in running a business together with my husband. We started a small company 10 years ago and we are still developing it. It was just two of us at the beginning and currently we hire 15 people. So I may say I had strong business ground to jump into the art field. Before I let any inspirations influence me, there was something meaningful that started my journey with collage. A few years ago, I prepared a gift for someone’s birthday and I made a funny collage with a photo of this person. After finishing my work, I felt pure joy and happiness. I was surprised how strong it was. I felt the need for creation and loved this method of artistic expression. Since then, I have started to collect information about collage, learn about it and observe other collage artists. Some time later, having a hard time after too much work and stress, I was looking for something that could give me positive, fulfilling energy. Something that will not be connected to business, goals, achievements. That was the point when I came back to this remembered feeling of joy and happiness. It was a turning point when I decided (or was pushed) to create my own works. This decision was crucial for transition into creating collages. In terms of inspiration I would say my major inspiration are other artists. I observe many amazing collage artists on instagram, I collect publications with collage art. I also love to learn and read about Polish women artists from the past (for example Kobro, Stryjeńska, Boznańska). Their biographies combined with their artworks are huge inspiration for me and encourage me to create, to fight for space in life for that. Another area of inspiration is looking for examples of applying collage technique in albums covers, posters, books or magazines and other areas of art. For example, lately I saw an interesting exhibition of the Polish photographer Zofia Rydet, who applied collage technique in her photographs. Using gelatin silver prints she created monochrome photo collages that were combined from her own photos only.

How has your educational background in curriculum and teaching influenced your artistic process or the themes you explore in your collages?

It was definitely the need for better and deeper understanding of the process of creating and growing me as an amateur artist. Observing me as a beginner in the art process and how it influenced me through the time was interesting. For a long time I was creating my collages secretly from others, hiding papers, glues and frames in many drawers. Then I shared it only with my husband, kids and closest friends. They started to ask me for a collage for themselves. At the beginning I was convinced that I had no right to create because I was not a formally educated artist. It took me about 2-3 years to openly talk about making collages, arrange „official” space for creating them, and finally set up an Instagram profile with my works. In this time of slow experimenting with paper collages I observed myself and my transition during the process. I was gaining more and more courage, satisfaction, joy. I was more open to making a mistake, experimenting, being ok with not knowing. I was amazed how good and healing it was for me. It was really powerful. My need for understanding this on a deeper level definitely comes from the education field, but also the field of organizational development. Unrevealed processes in companies have a huge influence on people and their behavior on the surface. I saw a clear parallel here.. I had to find out what is under the surface of the art process itself. That is how I found out about art therapy and started to explore this topic. I finished Academy of Art Therapy and started to use collage techniques in art workshops with women and seniors. It is a very interesting and satisfying time for me. I plan to develop my knowledge and experience in this area.

 Irmina Wachna-Sosin | Generations | 2024

Many of your works incorporate themes of memory and family, as seen in your collages. Can you share more about the inspiration behind these themes?

I am actually surprised with this fact but I decided not to fight against it. Usually I don’t plan it. Sometimes when I find or receive an old picture of someone from the family I feel a very strong need for changing the context from the picture. That need usually corresponds with my unaware emotions or feelings. At the end, when work is done I am very often exhausted but very happy. When the collage is done I also usually already know the answer why I wanted to work with a particular piece. And it has a great additional effect for me. Maybe I will explain it better with examples. Collage „My young grandmother” is one of them. I used a black and white photo of her from her youth which I found in her old albums. I placed her figure in the background of the setting sun, among colorful flowers, in energetic, positive colors. This context strengthened her smile and allowed me to see her as a happy, carefree woman before any social role she had to bear later in her life. That college brought me relief and peace but also awareness of this missing part of my grandmother’s memory. In the collage „You got this” you can see me as a small kid. I found this black and white photo at my parents’ house. This not relevant photo was taken among other kids on the street. I cut myself out of this crowd and put myself on the high mountain that is a symbol of life challenges for me. I gave myself, as a little girl, encouragement and self-support I always needed. Sun and mountain are pieces from my children’s paintings as a symbol of this need that is accurate for any generation, including my kids.

You’ve mentioned your interest in art therapy. How do you see the connection between your collages and therapeutic practices?

There are many definitions of Art Therapy, but to put it as simply as possible, it is the use of various forms of art in the therapeutic process – music, art, dance, theatre, sculpture. The final work itself is less important than the process of creation. The process affects the mental and physical well-being of the person who creates. Creating and interacting with art is a great way to relieve negative emotions and reduce stress. It has a positive influence on our brain. It also helps to contact deeply hidden emotions and express them. This is exactly what happened for me when I started to create collages. I felt this positive additional aspect of creation and wanted to learn more about it and spread it among others on collage workshop. Collage method is great to start an art-adventure because you reuse what is already made, printed, painted. You don’t have to draw or paint what can be more stressful at the beginning. At the same time it forces you to connect with yourself, your thoughts, dreams, emotions. They are very often unconscious but during the process of creating they become noticed, real and visible. I love observing the creation process and I am always amazed how it influences workshop participants. They always start with stress, reservation and no faith in their abilities but when they finish they are happy, proud and satisfied. When I see a spark in their eyes, I am also happy.

 Irmina Wachna-Sosin | Too much | 2024

What emotions or messages do you hope your audience will take away from your works?

If my collages could bring any emotional „effect” for someone other than only me, then it would be more than I have ever expected. I can only hope it happens. Through my experience and workshops I want to spread the message that anyone can create. That art creation is a wonderful process, we all love it as children. We should never give up on it. We don’t have to create advanced paintings, we don’t have to show it to anyone. Very simple drawings of dots and lines, scribbles or coloring pages are absolutely enough. Art is powerful and healing, just let yourself try it.

Can you describe your creative process when working on a new collage? What materials or techniques are most important to you?

I may compare it to the journey. The creative process is like the best adventure for me. Sometimes it is easy and short but sometimes it is hard, frustrating, requiring changing plans or new ideas. But it is always a fascinating, learning time with satisfaction at the end. Very often it starts with the word, sentence, picture or photo I find. I feel I want to work with it, although very often I am not sure why and I don’t have any particular idea about it. I learn to trust this feeling. I cut it off or take it aside and I start having it in my mind. Waiting for more, being patient. I know it tells me something and I want to find out what it is. Then I look for other parts, I continue researching and thinking about it. Sometimes it takes weeks or months. For example, collage with grandparents took me over a year. I collected the parts I wanted to use and finished it after I found an old postcard from their hometown. I bought it in a bookstore in a totally different part of my country. A complete coincidence, but when I found it I knew I had everything to finish this collage. Composition is another important part of the process. Choosing backgrounds, frames, and types of materials are very important for me. Usually I feel and see very clearly about what is „good or wrong” for the picture but I still have to learn to trust that. In case of doubts towards final details I take photos of different variants of the collage and keep them in mind for some days. I look at them a few times and then I know. Then I can move on to final assembling.

 Irmina Wachna-Sosin | Grandparents | 2024

How has your cultural background, being from Poland and studying in the USA, influenced your artistic vision?

Studying in the USA gave me an amazing chance to see the variety, complexity of the world, different attitudes, life strategies, values. It was a very interesting but also challenging experience that automatically forced me to rethink who I am. It initiated reflection on my ethnicity, but also rethinking my beliefs, values, choices and seeing if they are really mine or they were rather given me by my cultural background. This aware process of knowing who I am started then and has been growing in me through other experiences. Showing what you think and who you are in a vulnerable and authentic way requires courage. Creating collages is my way to do that.