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Interpretation:
La Vie en Rose, “The Life of a Rose” is meant to contrast this piece. Though it simply looks like a bright blue kettle with wilting roses, what can be interpreted goes much deeper. The roses themselves are made out of an old French piano piece named La Papillon “The Butterfly”. Butterflies normally represent rebirth or regrowth making it another contrast to the piece's title of the wilting roses. I purposely drew the roses because of my time in Paris. A favorite memory of mine was walking through the streets every day and watching these people sell hundreds of roses from morning to night. Watching men walk up and purchase a rose for their lovers, and seeing the smile on their faces when it was handed to them. Marceline Desbordes-Valmore is a French poet who captures hope and passion using roses and the inspiration of La Vie en Rose with this beautiful poem: “I wanted to bring you roses this morning. There were so many I wanted to bring, The knots at my waist could not hold so many. The knots burst. All the roses took wing, The air was filled with roses flying, Carried by the wind, into the sea. The waves are red, as though they are burning. My dress still has the scent of the morning, Remembering roses. Smell them on me.” So, who are these roses from? What were they for? Forgiveness? Remorse? A gift? And will they be replaced with beautiful new roses, or left to wilt and perish?
The original drawing was bought during it’s exhibition by my grandmother, and she calls often expressing her love for it. There’s no one I’d rather have possess the original version of this seeing that it is one of my favorites and was drawn during my first Excelsior Art Fair in 2024.
