German born Monika Heckenbach (known best simply as Mona) has created hundreds of inspiring paintings that are on display in private residences and galleries across
the globe. Mona currently works from her waterfront studio on the world famous Padre Island in the sparkling city of Corpus Christi, Texas, where her upbeat, abstract style both matches and builds upon the casually sophisticated local atmosphere. Mona has received formal art training at schools across Germany and Europe (Munich, Karlsruhe, and even Rome) and follows the abstract traditions established by the myriad of great modernist and post modernist painters who have hailed from Germany since the early 20th century.Mona also draws significantly on her international experiences. Besides having moved across the world to Texas, she has also traveled the globe extensively over the years, always avoiding traditional tourists destinations in order to seek out the worlds amazingly varied cultures. Mona has spent time in many different parts of Asia, North America and most regions of Europe, and all of these travels have given her art a universal flair.
Mona is happy, easy going spirit comes shining through in each of her works. Her paintings are, according to the abstract style, a complex mix of patterns and colors that are not always in immediately recognizable shapes. It is this latter feature that gives Monas Art; indeed all abstract art — its most significant beauty. Monas art purposely mini- mizes, or in some cases distorts, what we think of as reality in order to invite the viewer to connect with the human spirit. Emotions come strongly into play in Monas art, just as they do in a great poem, a classic piece of music or any other work of art. Mona’s goal with her art is not so much to re-create beautiful scenes realistically. Rather, Mona aims in every piece to capture real humanness, to help a viewer experience a certain emotion. And, because Mona’s own spirit is a free and happy one, her paintings tend to portray a light-heartedmood with the use of surprisingly inspirational colors and patterns.
Mona’s style can best be described as simply “Modern Art” or “Abstract Art” rather than as one of the many of Modern Art that have come about since the 17th century (Impressionism, Cubism, Expressionism, etc). That’s a testimony to its eclectic nature. Modern Art came of age in the world about the same time as photography, and that is no coincidence. With the advent of photography, painters have long since been freed of the responsibility to create realistic pictures and, instead, to capture emotions through designs and color. Over the centuries, schools of painters have adapted unique styles and techniques to such an extent that scholars now occasionally debate whether “Modern Art” might now be an outdated term. (The same type of debate occurs in the realm of literature, too, where scholars now say that English has changed suffici entlysince the time of Shakespeare to justify a new era of the language. To think the Romeo and Juliet is a “Modern English” piece is almost laughable today.) Always being one to avoid labels and conventions, Mona still thinks of herself as just a “modern” artist. The consistency of her work is that it is about emotions rather than precision. And thatis what “Modern Art” has always been about.