Admiration of the ambiguity of the world encourages me to reflect on the fragility of man in nature. Watching the cycles of growth and death of nature, I realize my own finiteness. My final goal is not depicting the transience of sensations or the truth about the external world. Contemplating the transience of nature allows me to look into myself. This is why I try to consider the motif of landscape as a form of an encrypted diary – a reflection of my own thoughts, desires, concerns. A painting evolves into a palimpsest: of views, memories, sensations that I transform and try to find a way to keep and depict them. Records of encounters, conversations with God, memory of people, objects, places I have been to, everything that is close to me, I express on my paintings.
Monika Shaded. Tekst read on the doctoral thesis defence, Poznań, 2013