COME CLOSER

“I can be inspired by art too you know, send me a painting and I will make something”. That is how we began, Marriane was putting me to work on something for her.

Marianne: The initial way I was inspired and responded to your piece called COME CLOSER was this: you sent me an unfinished piece that already had its heart in it because of the interesting color choices and movement within that color.

Diana: I made the initial piece with you in mind and perhaps also secretly wondering what you would come up with using these colors, yellows. Maybe the colors in my piece wouldn’t be what would inspire you; maybe it would be something else. I tested the waters thinking that perhaps if you did choose yellows, what sort of yellow foods would you come up with.

Marianne: It was already summoning energy, already glowing, already beckoning. It seems to me that you really did come closer to this color that is kind of glowing, golden, yellow, orange, and it then moved through my own eyes and it transported me to where I’m living (in Le Perche) because it’s my environment. I started coming closer, too, almost as if I was living with your painting, and it became a filter and I took the time to let it just live in me.

Diana: I too lived with the picture. I hung it up, looking at it every day, searching for what else it needed.

Marianne: I saw the colors that were emerging here in the farmland, at farm stands, in nature, and they resonated with the same glow...even the same color because of what’s in season: physalis, with its brilliant deep orange-yellow globes inside papery, wheat-gold husks and mirabelles, tiny golden-yellow plums, sometimes also blushed with a little russet, apples, too, that also have that same yellow rubbed with russet, and the golden pears, also blushed. The color of the late summer sun.

Diana: I do not like to dwell too much in creating something specific. I rather take great joy in what unveils from within. I honor the metaphysical world and appreciate when I can witness its beauty. We have been connected for months even within our distance, so it’s not surprising to me that these yellows were how I was able to taste your food, your soil, smell your season across the land and ocean. The connecting line is strong.

I am including below influences in my environment. They conjure feelings of peace, beauty, freedom so desperately at risk, nature, air, breath, light, sun, power, hope, a new day, sunrise, sunset, ocean, travel, anger and strength.

Marianne: The market in my little hamlet of Condé-sur-Huisne. It consists of a maraîcher (vegetable farm) stand and a man who sells his poultry, fresh cheeses, and yogurt out of a van. That's it. But the vegetables from this permacultural farm are extraordinary. It's called Valdieu (God's Valley). The colors of right now.

Marianne: Then when you showed me the final painting with its striations and movement with a kind of vanilla colored cream--something brighter and whiter than the yellow, but also having that same glow, and it just moved it to its final buzzing, and I was inspired.

Come Closer

pastel on paper, 30 inches by 22 inches
Summer of 2020

Diana: I had been looking at the picture for a long time and realized that the space inside was too free. It needed to be restricted with a deep, uncontrollable desire to burst open and be truly free.

Marianne: I wanted to take those elements from nature and farms and create a mélange--a mixture that would move in the same way as your painting, so I took them all and respected their shapes: the mirabelles are cut in half like little suns, the physallis are left whole, and the pears in wedges like moons. And there was something magical about dealing with each fruit and then I put it all together on a lovely white plate--I just wanted a plain canvas--and then I created the sauce. And the sauce is a mixture of tahini, lime juice, honey, mirabelles jam, and quatre épices, which is a mixture of nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger and clove, and I whorled that around with a little heavy cream and it became a lovely splash that unifies the whole thing. Then I sprinkled on some chopped walnuts and I felt like I had entered my filter, the art, and it all started responding and that’s the end.

Diana: I was in astonishment to see what you created! It was so perfect. I felt seen and cared for. My need to express and be understood was fulfilled.

Marianne: I came closer to slowing down time and looking closely at my environment. The yellow of meditation and movement and renewal. I also got two feral kittens this month: Soleil (sunshine) and Léo. They are the same color as your painting and the dish I created, and they are not even related!

Diana: It feels magical but perhaps it’s just one of those mysteries in life that people who are connected in someway and are apart, seem to communicate in the metaphysical fashion. As you were having your feral cat experience, I too was having a similar one across the sea. Feral cats were coming to me to be nourished. This reminded me of a time I was in Rome and I asked a woman why there were so many cats in the city and why everyone was feeding them. She responded, as she placed a huge, plate of pasta with tomato sauce on the street for them and at least 50 cats showed up for the feast, “because we are grateful to them”, I am honored to have collaborated on this project with Marianne, it was so much fun. Here are some pictures of our French and American feral felines. And when it comes down to it, all they are seeking is nourishment, to be seen and to come closer to each other, as we all do.

The Artist's Vertex