Melvin Way (b. 1954, Ruffin, South Carolina) lives and works in South Carolina but spent most of his adult and creative life in New York City. Way’s drawings look like copied textbook chemical formulas, but do not ultimately describe any substance known to man. Way has made perhaps a few thousand drawings over the course of his life but many have been destroyed by the elements or worn thin by the constant shuffling back and forth among backpacks, wallets, pockets, drawers, and other hiding places.