"Quatorze Juillet" + 4

Dandelion Fountain
Originally uploaded by Photeinos

The vernissage Tuesday showed work of three artists: Geneviève Flament, Paul Grayson, and Walkind Rodriguez. We were celebrating the 220th anniversary of modern France, a day that commemorates the bloody revolution, and also liberation of the French people.

Eighty or so people came to celebrate and enjoy the art although one had to squint to really see these connections. (Artist and neighbor Troy asked diplomatically, "Is there...a theme??" Nevertheless, all the artists were besieged with questions, comments and feedback and put paid to the idea that everyone was away for the weekend!

Pictured: Dandelion Fountain by Paul Grayson, one of the evening's favorites. Price on request.

Symbolic Calm

Walkind Rodriguez arrived from Toulouse yesterday and hung three of his paintings in the salon. This means that one-third of the show is up! Still to go: Geneviève Flament, who arrives from vacation this afternoon, and Paul Grayson, who'll be away from La Défense this weekend.

Walkind and I tried many different combinations of hanging the three paintings together, found the right one, then sat back and admired them and spoke in French about his work. Since his roots are Afro-caribbean, we talked of superstition and symbols and he acknowleged that he is fascinated by turtles and goes to the woods to find them and paint them.

"They represent immortality," I said. He said nothing.

"Tenacity," I tried again.

No. For him, he said, they represent calm!

I looked. I thought about the sublime tortoise I saw in front of me. Realized that as long as he is up in my living room I will meditate on this talisman of serenity and be better for it!

Walkind, though, was not calm yesterday because he had lost something on the train and was obsessing and beating himself up about it. He'd made the requisite call to the lost and found department, but couldn't stop worrying. I gave him an empty frame and said half joking, "Stop obsessing. Get back to work!"

He looked philosophical. He quoted a poet friend of his who said, "There's work and then there's the sack of knots that is the rest of your life!"

At first I thought he was saying that work is nothing but problems to solve. Then I realized that he was saying the opposite: that work is comfort, is respite from all that. That when you love your work, everything else falls away for a time. Taking work and taking life like a tortoise, slow but sure progression, protected, calm.

"Icotea," acrylic on canvas, 89 cm. x 116 cm., 2009. On display for the show "Quatorze Juillet."

Just around the corner

How I met Geneviève Flament

I was having a drink on the rue des Abbesses with photographer Robert Ogle, who lives just a few blocks from me in a charming out-of-the-way passage that is charming and countrified. He rolled a cigarette, eyed a young blonde at the next table, and asked for a light. Her companion was an older gentleman who turned out to be her father. We four got to talking: when I revealed that I show artists in my home gallery, the young girl, Juliette, piped up, "My mother is an artist!"

Uh-oh. That's what they all say.

But then, did I not come to show an excellent painter named Monique Hospital in the early days of chez Grace just by the persistence of her daughter Florence who came to the vernissages and each time implored me to look at her mother's work. She emailed me, sent the link to her mom's website, and invited me to her atelier.

Persistence counts.

And passion. So Juliette and her mom showed up at the next vernissage that rolled around, the group show in April, and the next one too. I think I am too influenced now by Facebook, and think that I can judge a book by its cover, but these days more and more I am taken in by a person's looks. And this woman had the sweetest face, with sincere dark eyes and a gentleness about her. And a humility that I found very appealing next to my own monstrous ego.

Last week I made it over to her studio. It is just around the corner. She showed me her latest paintings and explained that she will be included in a book that will come out next September. I had pretty much already made up my mind to include her in the next show, but seeing her dreamy meditations on nature made me feel like I was walking on air the way back to my place.

Pictured: "Cascade," acrylic on canvas. 130 cm. x 81 cm.