About
Artist Statement
My work is a visual and written exploration of identity, embodiment, vulnerability, and transformation. Working in acrylic, drawing, mixed media, sculptural relief, poetry, and short stories, I investigate how memory, aging, intimacy, loss, resistance, and renewal accumulate within the body and soul.
Having spent much of my life studying the human body, I am now drawn to the anatomy of emotion.
My process is physical and layered. I build surfaces through bold color, thick impasto, scraping, abrasion, and gestural movement, allowing forms to emerge, disappear, and return. Each work becomes a negotiation between chaos and clarity, intuition and structure, control and surrender.
Writing is not separate from the visual work, but part of its architecture. My poems and short stories enter into dialogue with the paintings, deepening their emotional and symbolic resonance without closing their meaning.
Bio
Hanna Rachocka is a painter, mixed-media artist, poet, and writer based in Tampa, Florida. Born in Poland, she immigrated to the United States in 1990 and spent nearly three decades practicing internal medicine before turning to art as her primary work.
Self-directed as an artist, Rachocka works in acrylic, mixed media, heavily built impasto, sculptural relief, poetry, and short stories. Her textured surfaces often approach relief, giving physical presence to psychological and emotional states.
Drawing on myth, allegory, memory, and lived experience, Rachocka explores identity, embodiment, vulnerability, resistance, and transformation.
Her work has been exhibited in the Tampa Bay region and is held in private collections. She continues to develop an ongoing body of visual and written work centered on the human encounter with chaos, time, and transformation.
Curriculum Vitae
Professional Practice
Independent Studio Artist and WriterTampa, FL
Solo Exhibitions
Give Thanks, Give BackCarrollwood Cultural Center, Tampa, FLSolo benefit exhibition supporting the Center.
Group Exhibitions
The Star Spangled Art ShowOldsmar City Hall, Oldsmar, FL
Vibrant Hues of FallThe Exhibiting Society of Artists, Tampa, FL
Student, Faculty, and Member ShowCarrollwood Cultural Center, Tampa, FL
Pathways, Portals, and JourneysCarrollwood Cultural Center, Tampa, FL
Origins and BeginningsCarrollwood Cultural Center, Tampa, FL
NarrativesCarrollwood Cultural Center, Tampa, FL
People, Places, ThingsCarrollwood Cultural Center, Tampa, FL
Sky’s the LimitCarrollwood Cultural Center, Tampa, FL
Pointillism & BeyondCarrollwood Cultural Center, Tampa, FL
Student, Faculty Art ShowCarrollwood Cultural Center, Tampa, FL
Awards
Third Place, Hands on Deck (mixed media)Student, Faculty Art Show, Carrollwood Cultural Center, Tampa, FL
Curatorial Experience
Curator, Vibrant Hues of FallThe Exhibiting Society of Artists, Tampa, FLRegional group exhibition of more than 150 works.
Education
Doctor of MedicineMedical Academy of Gdańsk, Poland, 1990
Faculty Development Program for Clinical EducatorsJohns Hopkins University, 1997–1998