Sonya Kertész is a multidisciplinary artist, she paints in oil, acrylic, creates ceramic sculptures and installations with videos and projections. She obtained her Bachelor of Fine Arts in “Painting and Drawing” from Concordia University in 2025. A diver for 25 years and an underwater photographer, her approach is based on her diving expeditions and her travels. Kertész is interested in places full of history and traces left by man. Her works are intended to be immersive and are represented by objects in forgotten, transformed, abandoned and difficult to access spaces. She is interested in various issues, such as climate change, the increase in the world population and pollution that put our resources at risk and require protection and conservation. My most recent work is inspired by a drawing class in Italy as part of my studies at Concordia University. I had the opportunity to acquire new skills that I integrate into my painting. I was strongly inspired by the discovery of an abandoned building that over time has undergone several transformations. From this exploration was born my series entitled "Nosce te Ipsum", which translates from Latin as "Know thyself". Thanks to the objects, old memories and frescoes that I observed and photographed, I discovered that this place once served as a school and possibly a residence and a hotel. My photos, both nostalgic and funereal, represent stairwells, empty classrooms without doors or windows, old frescoes on the walls and decaying furniture with its various objects metamorphosed by the passage of time. Being a diver in little-frequented places and an underwater photographer, these images represent a kind of déjà vu. My intention is to draw a parallel with, for example, wrecks abandoned at the bottom of the sea that are disintegrating and dying and these abandoned buildings with their old memories. So just like in this environment deserted by humans, the sea is also abandoned with its wrecks and emptied of its treasures. The bleaching of the corals is also comparable to the objects transformed into ashes found in this building. The walls with their drips covered in dust and mold evoke for me the textures of the structures of rusty wrecks at the bottom of the ocean. To create this series of paintings, walking, observation, drawing and photography serve as a starting point in the planning process of my work. I continue with a selection of my photos and drawings to then modify them, crop them and change their colors and shapes. I draw on my canvas with a pencil and I begin my painting with a wash mainly made up of solvent. I use a lot of solvent in order to create the effect of submersion. I work with several subsequent layers of paint, taking care to let it dry between layers. I make my own colors using several tones and apply them with brushes of different sizes. I look for dichromatic color combinations