Karolina Romanowska found viral fame with her ceramic art, but don’t expect to find any cute mugs and plates on her Instagram page. She specializes in making quirky stoneware masks that she describes as “extremely resilient yet fragile”.
Romanowska is based in Madison, Wisconsin, and making pottery art is her way of getting to experience childlike freedom all over again. Working on her ceramics reminds her of the childhood days she spent playing in the dirt and transforming mud into pizzas, birds, castles, and everything in between.
Romanowska now enjoys working with clay, using a combination of slabs, coils, and molds to create her signature three-dimensional mask, and focusing on them wasn’t a coincidence.
“Masks are present wherever humans are. I am only repeating an act that has been done since the beginning of us. Used for rituals and entertainment, masks can hide or reveal who we are,” she told Colossal.
Romanowska’s masks are as expressive as they come, and they helped her attract 100,000 followers to her Instagram page. She’s hoping they’ll stick with people and stand the test of time because she enjoys imagining people seeing them for the first time and wondering, “What the hell is this?”
