As a child, I used to copy reproductions of van Gogh by daubing on gouache with my fingers. Within the
dazzling yellow, I dreamed of being a painter. It gave me that natural vitality and necessary strength in
order to change the world through painting.

Once this revelation was over, things became much more complicated. One loses van Gogh as one loses
those fantastic teenage dreams and that is why one constantly remembers him. Whenever my painting
starts getting encrusted and confines me, he gives me new hope, making everything seem possible.

I painted this picture with a "papier mâché" mask, given to me by a patient from the pshychiatric unit
in Montpellier, and the final scene of Godard "Pierrot le Fou", the face smeared with a lapis lazuli blue,
dynamiting himself to regain the lemon - yellow sun.

Alain Clément.