What’s on Stacy’s Mind?
What’s on Stacy’s Mind?
Monday, December 14, 2015
Things I Learned in France
This past summer I spent a month in France doing an Artist Residency at the Atelier de la Rose in a tiny village of Montcabrier in the Lot Valley of Southwestern France. I was so honored to travel with an amazing fellow artist, Hillary Raimo. It was an adventure from the first moment at the airport. It seemed to take forever and I traveled for 3 long days to get there. When I arrived in Montcabrier, I was so tired. I felt a tiredness that seemed to be overwhelming. I knew this what the place to regain the strength I needed to move forward in my life. The past two years prior to this had been difficult, to say the least. I lost my mother to cancer, separated from my husband, got a divorce and put my home on the market. I felt like I was escaping everything so that I could find myself again. After spending my entire adult life being a mother and a wife, I had no idea who I was when I wasn’t being those two things. My son is 24 and has a life of his own. So, I set off to go find the girl I left behind a long time ago before I became a young mother.
During my stay in Montcabrier, I walked around this little village, which seemed to be lost in time. I smelled a thousand roses and took long walks through the forest. I ate fresh, organic food, traveled to nearby villages and castles. I spent lots of quiet alone time in the church of Saint Louis and painted in the studio I was sharing with Hillary. My room was quaint and peaceful and I found solace in the quietude. This was my Eat, Pray Moment.
On the first full day there, Hillary went into the church before I did. When I walked in, she delighted in watching my eyes discover the SL on the altar. SL....there they were, like a beacon, Saying, “Hi there, Stacy LaFleur”. Well, they were really for Saint Louis, but even still, they ARE mine too. I felt like it was a special message that I was in the right place. I needed to come here.
As I posted daily on my Facebook page, messages poured in from so many people who were following our adventures. My 44th birthday in France was amazing and the long, long summer days of France was exactly what my heart needed. I looked upon the l’heure blue of the evening sky for hours each day and I just could not get enough of that amazing color. I felt the blue feeding my soul throughout the weeks in a strange way that I cannot describe.
On my second day, on a morning walk I spoke to a French woman named Constance. She invited me to come to her villa and paint. Her English was not very strong and my French is embarrassingly poor, so we did not speak much those first days. I painted in her garden and even with the language barriers, I made a friend.
The second week, a visitor arrived to visit with Hillary. He is a renowned author and scholar, Robert Bauval. On the first day when he arrived he spoke of his research and interest in Francis of Assisi. I was overjoyed to speak with such a scholar about a subject that I had been engulfed in for years. My particular interest was not only Francis, but Claire of Assisi, their relationship, and the fact that she is referred to as a Seraph in all of the texts. ’The Seraphic Mother’, to this day she is called. She began the order of the Poor Claire’s and Francis. I showed him a postcard of my painting of “The Miracle of the Rose’s”, which depicts St. Francis and Claire of Assisi. (2011 Commission).
(Note: The original of this painting is by the Leader of the Nazarene’s Fredreck Overbeck in 1829 and is painted on the exterior of St. Francis of Assisi’s Portziuncola. When the Vatican built The Basilica of St. Mary of the Angels, the portziuncola was damaged and the original painting was commissioned).
I was so happy to discuss the research I had found during the process of the work. The painting and my research was such a huge thing for me in the past few years. When I was first commissioned to recreate this painting. I studied the painting intensely to understand it’s meaning. I’ve never seen the real one in person, so I only had small images to work with. My family thought I had gone mad with my endless hours of research. Like Alice, falling down the rabbit hole I fell into syncronistic events, information fell in front of me. A web of information, and lies, long hidden from public eyes by the Vatican. I was obsessed with learning more and more. I completed and signed the LaFleur version of the “Miracle of the Roses” on November 11, 2011 in Lafayette, Louisiana.
Sally Gucheron, the owner of the Atelier de la Rose, had arranged for Robert to stay at Constance’s Villa. Remember, the French woman I met on the street? The following morning, he came over to speak with me bright and early. He excitedly told me that he was up until the wee hours of the morning talking with Constance (He speaks French Fluently) and he could not wait to tell me what he had found out. He told me that Constance had a cousin who had been Cannonized this year and was to be Sanctified later in the year. Her cousins name was Claire de Castelbajac and she was in the order of the Poor Claire’s. Claire had died on January 22,1971 at 21 years old suddenly of viral meningoencephalis while she was restoring the painting on the exterior of St. Francis of Assisi’s Portziuncola. This was the VERY same painting which I was commissioned to recreate in 2011!
I was determined to talk to Constance more about her cousin, Claire. With the help of Sally as a translator, Constance shared with us the story about the miracles and the events leading up to her artist cousin becoming a Saint. After our conversation I felt so overwhelmed and tired. I got up to go rest for a while and Constance hugged me, looked at me with her deep blue eyes and said to me, “Thank you for existing, You are important.”
I started to cry. Those words were so beautiful and I felt that they were divinely inspired. I had arrived in France, exhausted, broken and confused about my future. What does this all mean? Why did God bring me here? We all had hair standing up as we listened and honored what we observed.
I love you,
Stacy