Text by Joseph M. Schuster • Photography by Robin Stubbert

Surrounded by creativity (her father was a professor of architecture; her mother was a seamstress), it was inevitable that Magda Trzaski would become an artist. The only question was, what medium would she choose? In college, she studied photography and film. But it was a job in stop-motion animation that led to her current passion: three-dimensional, minimalist dreamscapes infused with surrealistic imagery. “I loved building tiny props, and I’ve always been interested in what goes on in our minds while we’re asleep. Suddenly it clicked that I could combine those things through art.”

(a) Magda cuddles her miniature dachshund, Walter. “He needed a big-sounding name because he’s so tiny.” (b) She created “Fruitless Daydream” from two of her favorite materials, a foam core box and a store-bought frame. She formed the figure from wire armature with a paper clay head. The clothing is vintage crepe paper. “I think Japanese papers have the best quality and texture.” (c) The small heads on her sketchbook are ornaments for a Halloween tree. “I love antique German Halloween ornaments! But they’re so expensive, I make my own.”

(d) Magda loves the airiness of her studio, built onto the back of the Toronto-area home she shares with her filmmaker husband. “It has amazing lighting, but it’s impossible to work there in the winter because it gets so cold.”

Magda, 32, was born and spent most of her childhood in Poland, where she passed many happy hours in her grandfather’s tailor shop. “I learned to sew on his wonderful, pedal-driven machine. I even managed to sew through my finger once, but it didn’t deter me.”
   Her family immigrated to Canada when she was 12. She always gravitated toward art, but hit a dry spell after graduating from college. “I didn’t create any work for close to a year,” she recalls. “In art school, you face the insistence that you have a clear concept for your work before you begin. I found it discouraging. Eventually, I got over it and just started making work without over-thinking it. My work has to be intuitive. If I plan too much, it will never happen.”



(e) “Even though I don’t start with any concepts, they often emerge after the fact. There’s a definite contrast between freedom and restriction in ‘Mr. Elephant.’ The balloons want to carry him away, but he’s held down by the weight of the ball, and by the box he’s in.”

(f) Magda is fascinated with Halloween partly because she sees it as a fun, stress-free holiday. “Unlike Christmas, there’s no pressure to buy the right gift or to hang out with family. The funny thing is, I’ve never been to a Halloween party, never even dressed up as a kid.” (g) To give her figures their distinctive antique appearance, she uses a crackling medium.

(h) The antique doll bed, a garage-sale find, became the basis for what will be one of her most complicated pieces. “I want to suggest that the balloons will pick up the bed and make it float away. It ties into my fascination with dreams.”

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