In Gold-plated empathies, I have painted things that I like, love or care about or things that I feel sympathy for. They are rather bold, naive, immediate reactions and impulses that I have wanted to paint and then cover with gold plate surface all the pointless misleading hubbub surrounding them. In this era of glass, wood and metal, the warm gleam of gold and the gold frames prompt a strange longing for nostalgia and elevate my Gold-plated empathies to almost objects of worship. Gold-plated empathies constitute a deranged pursuit of my own urges and desires but also reflect something broader about our world right here, right now, both today and yesterday, as observed by one 55-year-old man.

 

 

For my luck, the list of the things I like and care about is pretty much endless. Well, for example, I like my own sweetheart, a homeless family sleeping on a mattress cover on the street in the middle of busy Parisian evening, chatting with acquaintances, funny looking catering van, Cycladic icons, a pigeon couple side by side watching the world go by, the one in the confessional sharing secrets with the priest, comradeship, my own golden cage, friendship between old ladies, person’s longing for other person, wonderful dawn sky, pets, honesty to the point of stupidity, direct gazes, men-only stuff, artworks, parties, joking, ski tracks, forests full of mushrooms, roaming, fresh spring water that awakens my body, saunas and plump blueberries. And all the wonderful things that leave us feeling warm inside. Oh, there are so many of these golden things.