Remembering “The Red Shoes”

The film of “The Red Shoes” had a great effect on me when I first saw it as a child.

I identified with the dancer who finds herself caught up in the drama of a dark and entrancing fairy tale. It was an escape into a world removed from my own. I longed to be part of that dream-like world where everything was transformed and you were free of constraints, where newspaper came alive and danced, where red shoes had a life of their own and the shoemaker had sinister and magical powers. Alternative realities and transformations are recurrent themes in my painting.

The colour red is dramatic, full of energy and possible danger. It often presents itself in my paintings as an appearing and disappearing red thread.