Tatyana Grechina, Baby Excavator, 5 × 7 inches, oil on canvas, 2026.

This summer, I fell in love with painting the small things my son wouldn’t let out of his hands. As artists, we often seek to capture the objects, space and people sacred to us. I was inspired by the fact that even at such a young age, even my one year old feels attachment to objects and in his own way, sees them as sacred. This excavator was a gift from his grandma when we were in a book store in South Carolina, and he couldn’t put it down.