My name is Maria Lvova and I am an artist from Geneva. I see things through the prism of colours. Since childhood I see with colour, hear with colour, remember people and events with combinations of colours. I belong to synaesthetes (usually at the age of 5 children's receptors of sight, taste and smell are separated, as for synaesthetes - not all, or all are not separated).
I associate colour with smells, faces and events. I find it interesting to observe how our memory picks up fragments of the past and colours them in different ways. It is these different combinations that pop up as memories of tastes, smells, events, people. On canvas they are transformed into certain images, snatched from life impressions, into frames with different focus and sharpness.
In my work I explore the synergy between the elements of different cultural traditions across Europe, especially in Switzerland. I see them coming together and interacting, be it ornamentation, architecture, flowers, fruit, plants, faces and silhouettes. I am very fond of Swiss modernist painters. I am inspired by the landscapes of F Vallotton and F Hodler.
I work a lot with acrylics, watercolours and digital. I use photographs and videos as support material for my compositions. I often find new ideas, or sketch future paintings in a computer programme. Ironically, the computer processing of images gives me inspiration for new searches in the material, which leads to the creation of something entirely new.