#popstract

In February of 2014 Franck de las Mercedes watched helplessly, as his life’s work went up in flames when his studio burned down destroying his home and entire life's work.  Returning to the ashes of what was the home and hub of his creativity, he began to scoop up some of the ashes of what was home, art, literature, and music and memorialized all in a jar - the urn of the life he once had. In that jar were not only the ashes but also chunks of charcoal, which later evolved into the Blot work.  Unconsciously immersing himself in the works, he later realized that the series became his attempt to reclaim all that he lost in the fire. The series covers his lost books, his lost music and just as the phoenix - de las Mercedes has resurrected not only his creative edge - but those who have inspired him along his journey into art.

"After the fire of 2014 destroyed my entire life's work, I didn't know where to begin nor what direction to take in order to start painting again. I felt that I needed to give myself time to process what had happened. And yet when I relocated to Washington Heights, where I grew up and where once before I had arrived with nothing as an immigrant; I turned to painting random portraits with ink and acrylic, drawn with pieces of charcoal that I picked up from the ashes of my former studio. The subjects were selected as I encountered them, not thinking of attachments or aversions, the idea was to work and not be creatively paralyzed by the trauma and loss. The entire process actually felt like nonobjective free-writing. They are a glimpse into my creative process at that moment in time, but I also see them as optimistic tributes to lost works transformed into resilient icons through the subjects depicted. " Franck de las Mercedes