I met Tatjana while she was on the final year of her studies at the Academy of Fine Arts. She showed me some of her works and I was (and still am) really elated by what I saw. Although she was a student, she was completely formed and independent as an artist. I asked her to illustrate two of my novels, which she accepted under the condition that she has full liberty in her work. I expect that from a real artist and on this site, you can see what Tanja created in her gallery. Tatjana has read my books in details, but she did not illustrate them in the classical sense of the word. She offered her own understanding of my books, her own world and I am grateful for that. The fact that people are naked in her works is not connected to Eros, but to human existence which is barren to its very essence - fears and hopes. 

The painting of a naked, marked woman is not a step into the world of morbid ness, but a completely honest asking of Hamlet’s question in a powerful, impressive and completely authentical way. Finally “Hamletian” question can be asked by a woman as well as by a man.

Barren and naked people represented on the run, with pagan symbols and symbols of early Christianity turned into today powerfully picture man’s destiny, his run for life, death and sense of life. The painting of a bird woman maintains the relationship between the god and the man, in this case primary God- Mother Earth in an almost grotesque manner.

The painter asks an almost completely astonishing question: does the dead thing see further and deeper form what is alive? If you look at things more carefully, you will see that her painting of a mountain is composed of a line of eyes which look at us and the dead things like mountains look at our chaotic journey through time and space.

Great artists like Tatjana Novic do not give answers to questions, but they question our answers. Artists of this kind always put us on the crossroads showing us that whatever path we choose, we will come to a new crossroad soon and all the signposts on our way represent our own illusion.

© Nikola Kitanovic, 2002