Review of prof.zw. Józef Walczak

Review of Józef Walczak prof.zw. Department of Painting at the University of Fine Arts in Poznan:

Józef Walczak prof.zw. Poznań, 2013-07-28

Department of Painting at the University of Fine Arts in Poznan

Evaluation of doctoral dissertation, artistic and didactic achievements of Mrs. Monica Shaded, drawn up in connection with the PhD in the field of fine arts, in the fine arts discipline, initiated by the Council of the Faculty of Painting at the University of Fine Arts in Poznan.
Life would be much poorer if not for the existence of the art of painting. Our understanding of the world around us would also be greatly diminished. The act of painting offers the possibility of such a view on the world that any other method cannot express and realize. Such reflections arise whenever I experience morę and morę paintings of Monica Shaded. How distant these canvases have evolved from her school works. Not that they were poorer or worse but just evolved. It is difficult to inquire into a creative work to that elusive moment where the substance relationships built on the habits of everyday life ceases to function and starts to become the voice of the structure to which it is able to reach only your imagination. Appearances, to which we are so accustomed, disappear and we begin to discover the essential meaning of the phenomena by which the association that we so desparately cling to becomes unnecessary and we are allowed to simply be in the moment.
Viewing works and contemplating their complex meanings, I have been drawn into their narratives, thus revealing the deeper meanings associated with each piece. In this rarefied world of paintings Monica Shaded does not present objects and events in a banał and mythical way.Their specific beauty begins to gradually puli us in through the thicklyraised matterof impasto,throughthecolortissue,untilthreadsof meaning begin to reveal themseles, as if searching for the essence of the event. After the first inhalation of the painting, formal qualities quickly emerge.Then, one begins to enter in the next realm of the overall vision. The written work, “Landscape as a source of hidden meaninas.” consists of chaoters coverina a ranae of issues relatina to the wav of the

landscape treatment by several selected artists.
The choice of the proposed creators is not accidental; it is however consistent with her own fascinations and often inspirations. Monika traces the mystery of the painting matter which represents the undeniable attributes of’perfect painting’, in which these works are explored. She follows with a fuli seriousness of commitment, even with ardent worship and there is in it something of a mystery, something of an adventure of a discoverer of new lands and something connected with duration. Ali these considerations close the last chapter entitled Encrypted Diary concerning her own painting, towards which I would especially like to pay special tribute. The author revels in the truth that the main source of her inspiration comes from naturę, the multiplicity of shapes of her surrounding world, the complexity of its matter and color. Referring to this source of inspiration it should be noted that Monika Shaded does not paint directly from Naturę, rather drawing primordial threads of ancient wisdom that become her work.
However, all her works of art, without exception, are intertwined with her experience with naturę. “Encrypted diary,” describes the issue of seeking and finding sources of inspiration in the landscape and also handling and usage of appropriate painting techniques to express the intended contents. And so, these mini-trips in the natural world may not only be a search for places of contemplation that sharpen the vision, they may be a search for oneself, they can also be an escape from oneself. But, despite the intimate motive and ultimate revealed, her paintings leave their side-effect in the form of accumulated “collection of impressions.” These impressions in turn become an invaluable materiał for later use. It happens that often in the course of learning from these resources, the real painting begins to live its own life, begins to captivate by its own beauty, leading to Solutions, often unintended, as iflosingmemory and inspiration. The balance between what is real and what is abstract becomes dissipated, between what is remembered and what is experienced in the act of creation. Shaded Monika further explains what it means for her to have contact with naturę and in all its complexity. Monika States, “with the physicality of the surrounding world, with its diverse matter which reveals liaht. brinaina outthe hvonotic orooerties of color.” I would

like to point out that although the painting is subjected to ordering reflection – in its genesis has a spontaneous, instinctive and emotional character. Today’s time renews the traditional concepts in aesthetics connected with picture. form, gesture expression, and may be less conducive to reflectivity, and therefore leaves morę to creativity – continuous creation of painting, and thus de facto self-creation.
“Encrypted diary” reveals everything that precedes the painting, its inspiration and its feeling, and what is the result of many weeks and sometimes even months of work over the painting, when the essential for its’expression problems’are being settled. One can notice within this work how an existential experience entails aesthetic experience, which imposes visions. The truth of this experience authenticates the truth of the painting. The direct result is that the painting can be related to one minutę, and create accidental, unintended connections in the next.This can provoke a refreshing, stimulating effect, but in fact, there is no place for this discovery in the finished work of art. There can be no room for distraction. The key factors in the condition of the artist’s painting are two decisions: in what moment to capture the picture, and at what point this picture has fully developed its thematic vision. The image becomes a process in time, in which the metaphysics of painting gesture must be agreed with the logie of painting – dynamie form, the direction of the composition, the color temperaturę. The problem of aesthetic freeze of expression and finding harmony or dissonance arises; the most robust and evocative method would correspond to this emotional status, which became the reason for creating the picture in thefirst place. In a slightly different presentation this problem could be recognized in terms of vision and re – vision of the painting. The vision is that Monika goes to the canvas, equally specific, feeling the form and emotions. Re -vision is what she shapes on the canvas during many hours of session, subjecting visions of ordering painting reflection and at the same time immersing herself in passion to work on the painting. In this sense, developing intimate themes, she revises her own imagination, questioning the paintings intensity of color, abrasion of the masses, the dynamics of the form. You may say that a painting emerges from a painting-just as life comes from life.

By participating in the didactic process Shaded Monika is aware that while instructing students she is forced to not only to ask questions that allow them to organize their own ńrst reflections but equally to suggest to them the possible directions for further research. So she tries to offer them such conditions to work so that the student could become morę maturę in the fullest extent, taking into account personal freedom and autonomy of research. Diverse forms of work with students, organization ofexhibitions, and open airs facilitate this drive. Entering these diverse forms of work with students results from her insighful aspiration so that each of them could determine their own special and unique field of vision directly reflective of her own vision.
Condusion: Taking into account the overall artistic achievements and results of the pedagogical work of Monika Shaded I believe she fully deserves the distinction of receiving a doctoral degree in the discipline of Fine Arts.

Konkluzja: biorąc pod uwagę całokształt dorobku artystycznego i rezultaty pracy pedagogicznej Moniki Shaded uważam, że w pełni zasługuje na uzyskanie stopnia doktora w dyscyplinie sztuk pięknych.

Józef Walczak, Poznań 2013