I am sad to say that Monique Goldstrom passed away on February 12th. She had a big personality with many attributes, above all, a big heart, always making room for many people in her sphere. She gave artists opportunities to show their work, whereas many gallery dealers in NY would not, and helped people in many other ways. I was among them.
When I first came to NY I exhibited with her, then, there were a few years that we didn’t see each other for reasons I won’t go into. When I appeared in her gallery last year, she said, “you’re so stupid, I would have put you in so many shows.” You just had to love her and know that no matter how she said it she always wanted the best for you. She loved my new work and told me 100 times, which I take as a message to carry on.
While she was being buried in San Francisco, last night here in NYC we had our remembrance reception at the Eickholt Gallery in Soho. Artists brought works on paper that will be donated to cancer research. We laid the works out on the floor, surrounded by lit candles. We drank wine and held Monique in the air with love, through words of praise and by connecting to one another.
Today I feel sad with the realization that she is no longer here in body.
We are all just visitors here and it is always hard to leave people and places we have loved, even though the love remains.
One of the first and most intelligent books I read about death was Who Dies, by Stephen Levine, published in 1982. It came to me a few years after the death of my father, and has been a kind of bible, which I refer to from time to time. It is such a rich book with so many interesting ideas, but I will leave you with only a paragraph that someone I lent the book to underlined in the chapter, entitled Healing/Dying-The Great Balancing Act.
“As long as we are thinking of healing as opposed to dying, there will be confusion. As long as we separate life from death, we separate the mind from the heart and we will always have something to protect, something more to be, another cause for disharmony and illness. When the attitude toward healing is in balance, the attitude toward death is as well.”
Fantstic quote Barbara, be well
Vita