This body of work emerged from a project titled Recycling Pop Culture Imagery: Deconstructing the Familiar, which Szczesna began during the final stages of her university studies. Initially conceived as a response to critical discussions around media saturation, authorship, and consumer culture she explored previously, the concept quickly evolved into a sustained artistic inquiry. Drawing from theories of appropriation and visual semiotics, Szczesna began experimenting with gelli plate printing as a way to physically manipulate and fragment familiar images. What began as an academic exploration soon developed into a personal and conceptual framework that continues to shape her practice - challenging viewers to look beyond the surface of mass media and consider how meaning is constructed, disrupted, and reassembled in visual culture.​

Szczesna’s artistic process is deeply rooted in the principles of appropriation and experimentation, with a strong emphasis on the use of gelli plate printing and image transfer techniques. Working primarily with acrylic paint and imagery sourced from magazines, advertisements, and broader realms of pop culture, Szczesna deconstructs familiar visual elements to explore the dynamics of consumerism, media influence, and artistic authorship. Central to her practice is the tension between control and spontaneity, a duality that mirrors the unpredictable and often chaotic nature of contemporary visual culture. The gelli plate, with its flexible surface, enables immediate experimentation, allowing for a balance between deliberate design and unexpected outcomes.​

Szczesna draws heavily on the expansive visual vocabulary of mass media, appropriating its content to interrogate the messages and ideologies embedded within it. By transferring these images onto paper, she removes them from their original context, fracturing their narratives and opening space for new interpretations. This process of deconstruction not only challenges the images' intended meanings but also raises critical questions around ownership, authorship, and the ethical reuse of cultural materials. Through abstraction and layering, Szczesna blurs the boundary between recognition and ambiguity, compelling the viewer to actively engage in meaning-making. Her fragmented compositions reflect the shifting and unstable representations that typify contemporary media, prompting reflection on the ways in which meaning is shaped and reshaped in the public imagination.

Aesthetically, Szczesna’s work investigates the visual appeal and contradictions of mass-produced imagery. While her practice critiques the commodification and persuasive tactics of consumer media, it also acknowledges their seductive power. This tension between critique and admiration—highlights the complexity of our relationship with popular culture and invites a critical yet playful engagement with the images that permeate daily life. Her work becomes a visual inquiry into how cultural meaning is constructed, dismantled, and reassembled in a media-saturated society.

The medium of gelli plate printing is not only a technical choice for Szczesna but also a conceptual tool. Its immediacy and unpredictability mirror the fluid, ever-evolving nature of modern media, while its emphasis on layering and transformation speaks to the fragmentation that defines visual culture today. Each print emerges as a unique convergence of intent and chance, embodying the creative negotiation between structure and improvisation. Szczesna embraces this unpredictability, allowing the medium to inform the direction and evolution of each piece.

Through this reflective and adaptive practice, Szczesna continues to explore the complexities of appropriation, abstraction, and the aesthetics of mass media. Her engagement with gelli printing has expanded her understanding of impermanence, resilience, and the value of unexpected outcomes. Ultimately, her work fosters a deeper awareness of the intricate and often contradictory relationship between art, media, and society, offering viewers a space to reconsider and reimagine the familiar.