Sasha Yakovleva

The Rocks Remember What He Cannot l

This painting reflects on memory after my father's traumatic brain injury disrupted his ability to recall personal history. Drawing from time spent at his cottage, I work with materials gathered from Bruce Mine, including granite, pyrite, schist, and quartz, which I crush and process into pigment. These pigments are worked into the surface alongside encaustic wax and organic materials such as plant dyes, food remnants, and soil, allowing the painting to hold both material and organic traces.Through layering, erosion, and reworking, the painting develops in a way that parallels geological sedimentation, where earlier surfaces remain embedded and can re-emerge over time. Marks of pressure and abrasion are left visible, holding traces of lived experience within the material itself. The work considers how memory can persist within land, material, and place, even when it is no longer accessible through recall.