I first saw Agazia, oil on canvas, 21.5” x 17.75”, as a work-in-progress in Leonor’s atelier in St. Dyé-sur-Loire where I had been invited to spend a few days as her guest. I had brought her two kittens to help assuage her grief at the loss of Kot Jelenski to a brain aneurism earlier that year.

Kot’s death threw Leonor into an eight year depression which rendered her almost impervious to any kind of social intercourse. For me, the painting embodies all of the anger, rage, pain and loss that Leonor was feeling. It is still difficult to view the painting, but, perhaps in it, more than in any other, I can actually feel Leonor’s presence.