The Sleeping Gypsy

     The painting (below) called The Sleeping Gypsy can be found at The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City.

The Sleeping Gypsy by Henri Rousseau

It is located in the PAINTING AND SCULPTURE I, GALLERY 1, FLOOR 5.  Next, you can listen to a musical accompaniment called Big My Secret (Scent of Love)  that accompanies this painting. This musical soundtrack comes from the movie The Piano  (music  by Michael Nyman).
     Imagine telling someone you would love to date. Ask them to meet you at the MoMA, on the Fifth Floor in front of this painting, on a Saturday in summer. Wouldn't it be mysterious and romantic?  The painter Rousseau said "the lion in the painting picks up the scent of the woman, but does not devour her."  The painting is unusual and improbable. The desert setting is fantastical.
   This painting is a fantasy. All these inconsistencies point to the fact that it is not meant to be real, that it is a dream. In this setting, the lion, known as the king of the jungle, a predator among predators, exists as an abstraction of danger. But, just as in a child's mind, it adds only a flair of excitement and mystery, not fear. He seems just as curious of the gypsy as we are of him.

 Perhaps some of our love connections are that way too. We approach love not to devour the person but to share our life's journey. If this gypsy played the mandolin, I hope it sounds like
Jake Shimabukuro in the video below.

                                                     Gentle Mandolin - Jake Shimabukuro