Under the Influence

"Menina" was taken on Christmas day in 2008. My daughter, Malen, was 4 at the time and she is wearing a princess dress, a Christmas present from her grandparents. When I saw her swirling around in her dress, she reminded me of the Infanta Margarita portrayed in Velazquez masterpiece "Las Meninas". That was that moment that triggered the series "Under the Influence". the series is a tribute to the Masters, a playful anthology of some of my favourite artworks. I grew up in Paris and was lucky enough to live close to many museums, spending afternoons roaming the Louvre's galleries and looking at the paintings. I was fascinated at the sight of these masters seeing, interpreting and presenting the world in so many different ways. Very much to this day, all the paintings I saw in my youth continue to feed my imagination. I wanted to pass on my passion for art to my children, so this series is also for me a way to introduce them to our culture heritage, having them reinterpret and reenact this legacy.