Photos by Ilya Nodia
It was one of my last days at the Museum of Enterpreneurs, Patrons and Donors. Up on a ladder I was sorting and packing my archive when tears suddenly overwhelmed me. I needed to find an outlet for all the emotions and spent the next week pouring them into these nine mixed media works.
During all four years at the museum the sand sipping through the ceiling was my rival: it was a constant struggle to keep it away from the paintings. As a result, I had to rescan each work multiple times to make sure the image is sand-free. But for this series dirt and rejects of all sorts are the center of attention.
I employed scraps from my earlier sketches, parts from some tools, and all art materials that I knew. Acrylic on canvas in the abstract technique I’ve just developed that year; watercolor on paper; sanding paper; graph paper I used to plan out my paintings; letterpress blocks; plastic, metal, and paper tubing scraps; a toothpick (my paint brush); ribbons; construction paper; confetti from a party hosted at the museum; metal paraphernalia: springs, tacks, pieces of wire, nails; orange silicone cord; a leather cord from a passport cover my grandmother gave me for turning the legal age; silver; nanoblock; lead from colored pencil; I’m sure I forgot something. All of that heavily dusted by over a hundred years old brick crushed by hand in a pepper mill.
After these nine pieces were complete I felt a relief I sought.