English translation

"Monica van Rijn puts her soul in everything she creates. Once you have seen
various of her paintings, you will slowly learn to distinguish a number of 
main themes: departure, homecoming, doubt, uncertainty, infinity, hope and 
despair, saying hello and saying farewell, heavy themes, to be sure.
And there is nothing lightweight about her paintings either, on the contrary,
many of them have such dramatic elements it is wise to exhibit each one 
separately, that does them more justice. But behind the dramatic, 
non-figurative main themes, you suddenly detect a lovely landscape, reasonably
painted, a river delta or ocean bed, the view of a harbor, the contours
of a cityscape. Is that the female element Monica adds to take the viewer
by the hand and whisper maternally that there is also light and airiness 
and recognizability in this world of ours?  That not everything just comes down
to the serious problems of the world?" - Bert Gort, co-author "LAYERS Monica van Rijn"