Paper Boat

In this series, the small boat undertakes a complete journey: from a clear morning through the evening and quiet night to rain and storm. The boat here is a symbol of all that is fragile—hope, dreams, childhood, the very human being facing a force of nature far greater than themselves. The series poses a simple question: how much can something made of paper endure?

The core idea of the series is embedded in the technique itself. The little boat is not printed with paint; rather, it is cut from linoleum, so the impression is simply clean paper. It is made from the same material it exists on. Its fragility is not just a theme, but a property of the sheet itself.

A thin line, resembling thread, runs through several sheets. It seems to connect the boat to the shore, to home, to the person who set it adrift. At first, the thread is almost invisible; in the rain, it tightens, and in a storm, it vanishes.

The world of the series is drawn with an almost childlike hand. The waves resemble checkmarks, the seagulls look like birds sketched in a notebook, and the stars appear as hand-drawn asterisks. The set of symbols is small: wave, bird, star, moon, sun, droplet, lightning bolt. They repeat from page to page, like the letters of a single alphabet.

The simplicity here is deliberate. It brings the viewer back to a child’s perspective—and through that lens, to adult themes: loneliness, journey, and vulnerability.

The works are executed in the technique of linocut. The image was carved into linoleum with a gouge and printed onto paper using blue ink. All material removed by the cutting tool remains white on the print, while the untouched surface is printed in blue. Therefore, the image is perceived as a negative: light markings on the blue, much like a night sky. The gouge produces a vibrant, uneven line. With heavy pressure, dense, confident waves and a horizon emerge; with light pressure, fine lines appear in the tiny boat’s folds. The irregularities of the blue background resemble the movement of water and air, giving each sheet its own unique «weather.»