Railway Reverie

Artist: SAINT KYRIAKI (Katie Elizabeth Chonacas)
Medium: Ink and pastel on repurposed book pages (The Perfume Thief)
Location of Conception: Long Island Rail Road, en route to Southampton

Curatorial Description
Created entirely in transit, Railway Reverie is an intimate, spontaneous
exploration of motion, subconscious gesture, and memory. The piece emerged
organically while the artist was reading Amanda Sthers' novel The Perfume Thief.
Lacking traditional drawing paper at the moment of inspiration, the artist
subverted the utility of the text, transforming the blank inner cover sheets of the
book into an immediate, reactive canvas.
The work relies heavily on instinctive mark-making, treating the act of
improvisation as a sacred ceremony. Energetic, urgent black ink strokes slash
across the page to map out a distinct sense of direction, speed, and rhythmic
time. Beneath and intertwined with these structural marks are soft, layered
pastels in a palette of deep greens, bruised violets, and fluid sea-tones. Together,
these pigments evoke the impressionistic, blurred landscapes rushing past a
train window. The resulting composition carries an undeniable sense of
continuous motion—functioning as a literal visual echo of travel, internal thought,
and time slipping away.
Rooted in the artist's lifelong impulse to doodle, this delicate mixed-media work
honors the childlike instinct to create wherever inspiration lands. By grounding
raw, expressive gestures into the physical pages of a literary companion, the
artist elevates a fleeting, ephemeral travel experience into a permanent,
collectible artifact. A singular moment recorded in transit, it stands as a beautiful
page in a creative journey that keeps unfolding.

Item Details
• Original Artwork: 1-of-1 physical mixed-media piece executed on literary
paper. Signed by the artist.
• Substrate Composition: Authentic archival-grade, salvaged book-binding
paper.