Tatyana Grechina, Staying Level, 5 × 7 inches, oil on canvas, 2026.

In my obsession with the autonomous identity of objects, this tiny mini level kept crossing my path. Having entered my home through a small piece of furniture that needed construction, it floated around from drawer to drawer, too cute to throw away, until it finally landed on my kitchen table — where it stayed for weeks. Immortalizing it in paint, I realized what I really wanted to capture was the importance of something so small and useful — often forgotten, but never quite gone.