2011 - La colour de I'amour
In Paris you fall in love. With Paris first of all. Kees van Dongen said “ Life is the most beautiful picture. The rest is just painting “. Then you start looking at life and like the “ etoile “ at the point where all the roads come together, there you will find love. But love has many faces. You can perceive it by standing outside looking in or inside looking out. Fantasy, romantic love, expectations, disappointments, heartbreak, even “le sexe” which can provide to some the most economical way of having fun, are all part of the complexity of the human heart.
Paris is a seduction of which you may find yourself the only one without an invitation. The senses are awakened and the most potent is that of love or “l’amore”. Through the neighborhoods of Paris, love is veiled, revealed, imitated, reinvented and awakened.
La colour de l’amore. A creation from the heart. Where love speaks, you will find a poetic dialogue. A sense of wonder in the world. You live to justify life. In your togetherness or separation.
To experience Paris as a woman one of the first things I noticed this time around was the flair and magic of the shoes. They were exotic and imaginative and totally impractical for walking. Something to dream about. Which paths would they discover? New experiences. New love. Old paths never to be forgotten. An object of desire. A perfect fascination.
The kiss and Paris is something that cannot be separated. Lovers completely absorbed in one another, enrapt in their own aura. It immediately threw me in the sphere of Picasso , Chagalle and Klimt. And what was happening at that moment - the Royal Wedding. The kiss may be a promise of happiness but only conceivable outside social reality. The kiss imaginable in the world of dreams. It can be read as a cipher of erotic happiness. Signs of affection, friendship. Signs of loss. The impression of isolation and distance from the onlooker. In tune with nature and expressing a complete single existence.
Books were written about the restaurants of Paris. This is a place where lovers meet. Where people watch the world go by and friends share a glass of wine. In the restaurants some people want to be seen and others try to stay disguised. Where the waiters serve you with an attitude and the food is superb– mostly. If I could set down my easel in a restaurant in Paris I could stay there for a long time. In the restaurants of Paris you either are a spectator or you simply belong.
The centre piece, the Moulin Rouge is situated in the colourful area inhabiting the dark fantastical underworld of Paris. It was immortalized by the painter Toulouse Lautrec and many others. People come here searching for love and fantasy and often return with something totally different. The red wheel turns slowly, but life in turn is fast.
The Seine is one of the main arteries running through the heart of Paris. There are many boats on the river. Sometimes moving, carrying passengers, diners, and tourists who stare at the beauty of Paris, and passing the couples sitting on the bank of the river with their arms around each other, or lying in the sun. Sometimes the boats are accompanied by music floating by with sounds of the musicians playing on the bridges. People live on them, and work on them. They are very much a part of the life of Paris..
The reflections of people, cars, busses, objects, and life moving by in the windows of Paris have a great influence on the work that I do there. I can observe life in and out of perspective. Observe without being observed.
See what is on the inside and outside in a kaleidoscope of forms and colours. Inventing something totally different out of the reality of a scene by observing the moving reflections in the windows.
