Tablecloth with Sunflower 2007

Pavlo Makov made this mixed media piece called, "Tablecloth with Sunflower," on what looks like a found piece of old paper or fabric. There's a sense of something once functional, now transformed into something else entirely. The marks are delicate, almost like memories fading into the material. See how the little sunflower, almost a sun-like symbol, is repeated, becoming a pattern? The texture is rough, raw. The colors, muted, like a faded photograph. There's a real sense of layering here, not just of paint, but of time. That area near the center, where the browns and blacks bleed into each other, it reminds me of a stain, a mark of something that happened, something spilt. Makov is playing with the idea of what’s precious, what’s discarded, what’s remembered. I see echoes of artists like Cy Twombly in this work, someone else who uses marks and scribbles to make poetry. It leaves you with more questions than answers, which is maybe the best kind of art.