Even Roses Can Have The Blues

Isabelle paints bones, slabs of meat and bleeding pig’s trotters so delicately among the flowers that they seduce rather than scare. 

In classic Vanitas paintings, the emphasis is on the finite nature of life. A skull reminds you that one day you will die. A soap bubble is beautiful but can burst at any moment. A clock and an hourglass remind you that time is ticking. Flowers wither and something can be snuffed out like a candle.

You could also view this piece by Isabelle as a Vanitas painting. The raw flesh that is going to rot; the flowers, full of life today but soon to wither away. 

An old Vanitas work of art from the Rijksmuseum with a skull, soap bubbles, wilted flowers and a candle that has been snuffed out.

What is that shape in the centre? Is it a head, or do you see something else? Maybe it’s an opening. Or an island? Why not discuss it with a fellow visitor?