I began the SAD SONGS series in 2018 when a friend from the band Sad Songs for Happy People asked me to create visual work to accompany their music. What began as a collaboration gradually evolved into an independent series of small paintings, each measuring 10 × 10 cm.
Working in black and white oil paint, I developed images based on photographs I found in archives, through online sources, and in my personal archive. These references are transformed into condensed scenes that suggest narratives without fully defining them. Music is a constant presence in my studio, and this series allowed me to bring together sound and image. Each painting is connected to a specific song, often reflected in its title, creating a continuous dialogue between listening and looking.
The works evoke moments that feel suspended between memory and imagination. They depict scenes that are at once familiar and surreal: a bear playing a harp in the snow, a couple intertwined on an escalator, a burning house, a fallen ice cream, or a child in a room transformed into a planetarium. Over time, the series has expanded into more than hundred works, forming a visual archive linked through a shared playlist. Together, they function as fragments of collective memory shaped by both personal and cultural associations. SAD SONGS explores how music influences perception, how images can carry sound, and how memory is formed through overlapping sensory experiences.
