He has been lost for so long that the trees – once trimmed & turned into bilboquets — are now growing branches again. Lost for so long that the painter's style has under- gone several transform- ations in the interim. This from a classical period; airy, pastel-toned. A scene posed, as if disposed by a dramaturge, with the jockey center of the set, finally about to exit, stage left.
Elsewhere it is drawn by lions, on solid ground, even if it is a rough track rather than a road. Cherubs accompany her, either to keep her amused or on hand to push — while the lions pull — the chariot should it happen to get stuck. Allegory drawn large. The Virgin Mary on her way to heaven, assumed body & soul, traveling first class on a triumphal vehicle. Much the same thing here. The means of transport a shiny mirror, the suitcase closed as befits a virgin. Yet the perspective all wrong. If the mirror's right, then the case could only hold a single tube of lipstick. If the case is lifesize then a reasonable entourage could balance on the mirror comfortably. So what's the answer? Perhaps it lies in those marks on the mirror. Dare we suppose some lines of coke were snorted here, & the world now somewhat distorted.
He refused to work on the Sabbath, which is why the lights are all turned off — the moon gives me enough light to find my way around — & the painting is left upside down — I won't work but that doesn't stop my mind from turning over, so putting things in unusual places often helps as a sort of associative trigger when the next day comes around — & for any person passing by, an upturned apple is still an apple — I stole that idea from Gertrude Stein who I later paid back by painting rose after rose after rose — but no one has decreed that magic can't be done on this day — I deliberately put that half- full glass of wine there so that when it hangs upside- down with no spillage, what else can it be but magical?
