Three yellow roses seem to lie at the source of Lucia Onzaín’s structures. The roses allude to the title of a Raymond Carver story, in which Chekhov awaits death in a room at a spa decorated with a vase containing three yellow roses. Each rose marks a grave—Carver’s, Chekhov’s, and that of the artist’s own father. Onzaín links the three deaths to give meaning to her own loss.

The dominant effect of Onzaín’s work is one of transparency—sheets of glass encase amorphous substances that look as if they could have given life to the objects of which they are a part. She often uses a light iron frame