Today we’d like to introduce you to Melissa Kozakiewicz.
Melissa, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I was born a poet. I’ve been thinking about words and text and ideas my whole life. Sometimes it feels like a compulsion. When I was in my 20s, I got a masters degree in poetry, which cost a lot but taught me so much about the economy of words and the ways we use them.
I have published in many different of places and I try as hard as I can to be a pack rat for my published works but that’s harder in the age of digital content. Or easier. Maybe both.
I also build systems for cities so that public art can be experienced as widely as possible. This ranges from murals and sculpture to the way parks are designed or street sweepers are decorated. I like to call this “the utility of creativity.” The goal is to imbue art and wonder through intentional design into everything the public sector manages.
I started painting about a year or so ago when I experienced a trauma that stripped me of my ability to word. I couldn’t speak, and I also couldn’t really think in words.
And I wanted to create something beautiful. I needed to. So I started playing with watercolors and watching tutorials of artists painting flowers. I painted flowers on flowers on flowers. I can’t stop painting them.
I don’t know if that’s my story but let’s call it a good place to start.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I create visual artworks to help my brain feel calm. I love the process and the colors and the mess and the finished pieces. I think for me that’s what art-making is for.
I know there are people who would love to make a reasonable living by selling their artwork but that’s not really a motivating factor for me. I make art because I make art. Because I can’t stop. Even when I couldn’t poet it still came out in images.
On the question of whether it’s been a smooth road, I might say that there are a lot of potholes in Kansas City, so none us really have a smooth road, but I think we do our best to avoid the flat tires if we can.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
As far as making a reasonable living goes, I am the Co-Founder and Creative Principal at Tier One Solutions, a marketing and consulting firm here in Kansas City.
Prior to that, I built my career working for cities. I led innovation efforts and brought “the utility of creativity” to executive leadership roles, which allowed me to think about public art and creating a sense of wonder and joy into ordinary places, like staff uniforms, street signage, and even logos and iconography.
My job was to imagine: How can we add beauty or surprise to our infrastructure, our vehicles, our website, our parks, our shared spaces? Does the bridge have to be average or can we light it a way it make it beautiful? Is there a flourish we can add to the pedestrian experience?
And – to take the utility of creativity one step further – how can we use that same creative energy to solve difficult problems, like housing and homelessness or combined sewer infrastructure? All of this is the “utility of creativity.”
I was the editor of a magazine before that and a college professor before that.
And a poet that whole time.
What matters most to you? Why?
I think if you’re mom you say “my kids”, when someone asks you that, but I’m not sure that’s the direction we are going, so I’ll stick to the script and offer this:
My grandmother used to tell me that it is our job to leave it better than we found it. I take that direction from my parents too. All incredible and generous people who insist that doing the right thing has to be the right thing even if it’s hard,
So that drives my decision making in all things, from work to parenting to friendship. And maybe that’s what matters to me.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @msmel1979
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melissakozakiewicz
- Youtube: @msmel1979
