Alice (Russian Fields)

This began, oddly enough, with a copy of one of Leonid Pasternak's paintings--a very Russian scene with four young men seated around a table--each one in his own psychological reverie--reading, contemplating... The original has a fine sense of atmosphere--the modeled grays of the walls, a touch of pink ochre and raw sienna--the whites of their shirts shifting from warm to cool. But the liquid quality of the painting didn't come though, and I found myself eliminating figures--until all that remained was the young man on the left, seated, with a book... Gradually transposed into the figure of my mother (the 15th of January being her birthday)...the way I remember her (is that the word--it has more to do with a sense of gesture, really) also seated, reading, contemplating...

Alice...