The Sepia Series
The seven paintings referred to as The Sepia Series, define the earliest works by P. Kloczkowski Luberda. They were created to acknowledge the dark realities of life from a child’s perspective. They address emotional subjects with layers of psychological undertones.
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"inner sanctum" was the beginning of the artistic transition from creating paintings that were safe and pleasing to finally acknowledging the realities of life and the emotional, and psychological connection to others. A painting within a painting… hiding in a closet, when sad or afraid, is common for young children. Inner Sanctum presents the image of a figure huddled in a closet but offers a means of escape through an open door or a painting hanging on an adjacent wall. The secondary painting offers the image of a road going out into the world.
"expectation" ..... As we grow older, we attempt to hold onto our childhood memories, but they become fuzzy and begin to fade. A little girl’s memory of waking up daily, to have morning tea with her artist father, is precious—until it ends. Expectation expresses a three-year-old child’s perspective of the death of her father and the grief of her mother. The painting presents us with a shrunken child sitting at a dining room table, waiting for her father, who will never arrive. Blank canvases hang on a wall defining the paintings that were never painted or ones destroyed in the mother’s fit of grief. The shadowy figure in the hallway implies the loss of the father figure.
"2531n" ...... Everything seems so much larger—and so much more intense—from a child’s perspective. Chronicling the exaggerated details of a dark hallway, is 2531n. We stand behind a little girl as she opens the door to the entrance to her apartment, a long dimly lit passage, complete with a checkerboard tile floor that seems to imply a sepia-toned game of life.
"anticipation" ....,Anticipation is a painting that depicts a young child—waiting—staring out of a window. Waiting for her father to come home from work. The rug—decorated with the face of a clock—reinforces the slow and painstaking passage of time.
"past imperfect" .....The view from a child’s bedroom will be etched into her mind for the rest of her life. Past Imperfect, presents this inner-city view of the residential hotel next to her apartment building. The sculpture titled, SRO from 1995, was also created from this experience. Ironically, the sculpture also reflects the isolation resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic.
"city dreams" ....The imagery that is seared into a child’s mind is unforgiving. City Dreams presents the image of a sinister stranger asleep on the stairs and blocking a dark passage. The image records an event that was regularly repeated. A child seeking passage has but two choices… attempt to quietly step around the sleeping giant or scream and run past him.
"L-Tap"..The neighborhood bar where her mother was the barmaid. Children remember their childhood experiences. L-Tap shares the narrative of a colorful and unusual afterschool day-care. The painting references the child’s perspective of the neighborhood bar—looking up at patrons sitting on barstools. The painting alludes to the child’s interactions with these patrons.
