Elizabeth Konovalov describes herself as “a Big Stinky Lizard disguised as a human being.” She is a multidisciplinary artist who works with ceramics, collage, wood, painting, beading, assemblage, and found objects. Her artwork celebrates aesthetic clutter and visual fullness to create moments of gleeful overabundance. It can be found here.

On September 6 from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m., Konovalov will be opening her exhibit, Tender Loving Care, at xpace (303 Lansdowne Avenue-Unit 2). The installation uses an assemblage of discarded materials, found objects, sentimental ephemera, and cast ceramics to create a vision for a potential future where we treat our objects, memories, people, and landscape with compassion and care. It’s placed in front of a hyper-saturated landscape mural, but it’s largely purple, “as if looked at with rose-coloured lenses,” explains Konovalov.

We asked her about her life and work this week.

SDTC: Who/what is commanding a lot of attention in your life lately?

EK: Art, existential dread, pussy.

What have you learned about yourself in the past year?

The pleasure and pain of solitude.

What is a fun little-known fact about you?

I’m learning the accordion in hopes of joining the railroad circus.

What book/film/show have you connected with recently, and what about it appeals to you?

For books, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard, which is a book following the narrator’s hermetic journey through the woods surrounding her isolated home. It’s beautiful and horrific; in the first six pages, the author describes watching a frog be liquefied and consumed from the inside out by a giant water bug. I love nature, and I really love the prose in her writing.

What’s the worst piece of advice you’ve been given?

“Don’t take antidepressants.”

What is your motto at the moment?

“We don’t waste,” a YouTube video about a gas station hot pickle.

Any goals/plans for the fall?

Back to school for year number six… Yee-haw, I’m gonna make so many ceramics.

What piece of artwork would you love to have on your wall?

John Cage’s 4:33.

Rewind five years. What advice would you give yourself?

Stop hurting yourself.

What is the most courageous thing you’ve ever done?

Leave my house each day dressed like a goddamn fool.

What unnecessary object would you love to own?

All of them.

What tip, technique or hack has made your life better in the past year?

Trade perfect for done.

What issue do you wish people took more seriously?

Rising fascism, looming ecological collapse, kids in cages, missing and murdered Indigenous women, the horrors of capitalism.

What outfit makes you feel the most you?

Clown outfit.

Who/what has surprised you lately, and how?

The G7 only coming up with $20 million for the Amazon relief fund and Bolsonaro rejecting it—like, wow, we’re all gonna die sooner than anticipated for capital gain.

Fill in the blank. Art is ______?

Predominantly funded and monopolized by the oligarchy.