
I had a show in Brussels during the time of our fortieth birthdays, and we had a “Fortieth Birthday Blowout” (that we are still paying for!) by traveling also to Amsterdam and Paris, where we stayed for a magical couple of days in the Proust Room of the Ritz Hotel. Proust would have his dinners supposedly in this small room above the restaurant, where he would also meet guests and hold soirees. We were enchanted by the place and its history, and Proust has long been important to us in his life and literature.
Proust’s famous madeleine was a talisman back to synesthetic memories that he so eloquently and in his genius way wrote about in his experimental, nonlinear narrative and his spirit seemed very alive in the context of the room itself. They had beautiful flowers in this elegantly appointed small single (but luxurious) room, and we spent much time there, ordering in spaghetti bolognese (that we shared) for our meals, etc. In our Ritz bathrobes, we chillaxed in luxury, and literally stopped and smelt the flowers, appreciating our life, and feeling deep gratitude to what brought us to this point of our fortieth birthdays.
I painted this work a couple of years later, when Andrew was ill, trying to remember this high point in our life, and painting this for my love for my husband, after being together for over twenty years. I also wanted to paint this for him, when he was able to get out of bed, so he could remember happy times in the hope that it would make him feel better.
Sometimes the eloquence of pithy epiphanies can be true—stopping and smelling the roses of life is so important, and I choose paintings to meditate upon the subjects, like Proust’s madeleines, which are most important for me, and in many cases, make me feel good while painting them. Sometimes I think what you bring to the subject matter might be as important as the subject matter itself, especially true in painting, where thoughts and feelings unconsciously slip out as your brush is trying to consciously control the image. I’m hoping my love for Andrew shines through…