Viva La France

Sadly, there are a lot more flowers on the streets of Paris this week. Flowers procured and offered to signify that people are bearing witness to a terrible tragedy. My  singling out of the terrorist attacks on French soil starting with the attack of cartoonists and staff at the French Satirical Magazine, Charlie Hebdo nearly a year ago is personal. As an artist, a fundamental contribution to my aesthetic sense has been in studying the history of French art and design. On French soil, many movements brought forth paintings we think of as beautiful today, but were at times visually jarring and revolutionary at the time they were created, often challenging the way people thought about art. And it is the present day freedom to challenge and question other ideologies that I hold essential for a democracy. Whew, enough politics for a little flower blog. 

I'm not on the streets of Paris to lay these flowers down (and breathing more easily because of it) but the desire to contribute a personal offering lingered. The intention sat brewing in the back of my mind as I went about my business which took me into a store that might have a few vases now and again. 

I kept returning to this pitcher. It is crude and beat up but has intention and was oddly compelling in that ugly/beautiful way. What function would dictate a front spout that looked like it had been smashed in, compressed?  When I turned it over and saw that it was MADE IN FRANCE, it seemed incongruous- not very chic, not very French- really?  A little delving proved that it is indeed French and made in the early 1900's.
While it's maker can't tell me the story of how it came to be and what function it's served, I am grateful for the opportunity to repurpose it back in honor of the peace loving citizens of France, whatever their ethnicity.