Mystery behind Dawid Planeta’s illustrations

What does the world inside your head look like? Is it full of joy with candy houses all around, or maybe you imagine it as a land flying somewhere in the dark space? Artists’ minds are compositions of different images, forms and places, generated by their own experiences or feelings. With the talent to express themselves by transferring them to paper, canvas or music, they give us puzzling artworks, we often find not so easy to understand. Dawid Planeta is someone, whose journey through shade and depression is definitely worth exploring, his art gives us chills and we cannot stop figuring it out, so we asked him few questions and tried to reveal a mystery behind his illustrations.

You write and say that you have a ‘jungle in your mind’. What does it mean?

Everyone has one – it’s a jungle of past experiences, thoughts, emotions, things that we were told, things that we were taught.
You don’t realize how complexed structure it is until you decide to explore it. Until you dive into it looking for things that are causing your problems. That’s the moment you find out that there’s a real jungle there. Huge, wild and fascinating. And the deeper you go, the more you learn about yourself.

Who are ‘Mini People’?

They all represent one person. It’s a person, who explores the depths of his mind, discovers a completely new world within, that is beautiful and mysterious.
This place is full of life – there are things he has to confront, some of them seem to be way more powerful than him, seem to be completely out of control.  It’s a person, who decides to go on a journey to find himself. And you can only do it by yourself – no one can do it with you, and no one can do it for you. That’s why you always see only one person in all of my pictures. 

Are they afraid of these monstrous animals?

They encounter something they don’t fully understand, something wild and mysterious – they are fascinated, excited, captivated. Not knowing whether the things they see are in fact dangerous or it’s just their imagination. Should they try to fight it? Try to run away? They want to know more about this world, they want to understand, because understanding this world is understanding yourself.

Artists often start their creation adventure somewhere they don’t really wanna come back. Was there anything before these illustrations? Any other art series, or maybe you were born drawing  mysterious places?

I studied art and worked as an art teacher for many years, so I have done a lot of experimenting with different styles and techniques, some of them I would like to go back to and explore them more. Making art is creating something that will cause a certain feeling in a viewer. That will make him connect with something within himself he didn’t realize is there. This series is not my first attempt at doing so, but it’s the first time I really felt that I’m expressing something personal, not only creating visually beautiful compositions. 

Your first ‘Mini People’ illustrations were your way to deal with depression. Right now you try to express yourself in a new way, bringing some colors to your art. Has something changed?

My perspective has changed. That what depression is – it’s changing your perspective. Changes the things you are focusing on. It’s like looking at a big, beautiful painting and finding a black dot on it. It’s small, but annoying. You start to focus on it so hard that soon everything else seems to disappear completely. The black dot becomes your world and you realize you don’t know how to go back, how to just let go and enjoy the big picture. When you find a way to change it, everything changes. 

Where do you take your inspirations from? I can see that there is something strictly exotic in every artwork you make. Does it have anything to do with your travels to another countries and worlds?

I visited such places during my travels. To see a place that has existed for thousands of years in its natural form, unchanged, living by the laws of nature is truly an amazing experience. It changes the way you look at the world and yourself. For me, the jungle will always be a representation of something powerful and mysterious. That’s how I felt when I saw it for the first time and that’s the feeling I try to recreate in my art. 

Or maybe there is anything from the art world you find most inspiring?

You can find inspiration everywhere – when you see, hear or experience something, it can trigger and amplify the feelings you have within yourself. When it happens, you have a chance to see it better, to focus on it, explore it and then express that feeling in a way you think is best, whether it’s a drawing, painting, music or just taking some action. Looking for inspiration in other people’s art is a great way to break out of your thinking patterns, but it’s important to look for the way of thinking, the way of seeing the world other person has, not to copy the effect itself. 

Hungry for more? Visit Dawid’s gallery on Displate and his profiles on Facebook, Instagram and tumblr.