Le Bonbon Pain

"Le Bonbon de la toile" Version: *Peine* There are works of art that you look at. And there are works of art that look back at you—that recognize something in you even before you’ve found the words to name it. *Peine* is one of those. I don’t paint grief itself, but rather its layering—the way losses accumulate without waiting for the previous one to be processed. A job, a body that fails you, a friend whom life has cast back into darkness by their own hand, a father, a home, a piece of yourself, a relationship you cherished—far more, far too much... So many chapters of the same story that the world hasn’t slowed down to allow time to grieve. What this painting dares to say is that collective, silent pain exists. That we can scream inside while daily life continues to demand its share. That grief doesn’t always follow the expected path—sometimes it happens in a rush, squeezed between obligations, or not at all, for lack of space and permission. “Peine” is the space I granted myself in hindsight. The form given to what had previously had none. The visibility given to silences that deserved to exist in a way other than as voids. Faced with this work, I do not seek to console. I want us to sit down, to acknowledge. Because sometimes, that is exactly all we needed.