Reve Helga

33" x 43.5", oil on canvas

Jane Lillian Vance

In 2013, Vance hand-delivered this portrait to Madame Helga DeSilva Blow Perera at her home, Helga's Folly, in Kandy, Sri Lanka. The Painting fills a treasured golden frame, empty for 47 years until Vance accepted the invitation to anoint it with Helga's portrait. Wearing a Phillip Tracey hat and signiature tree of life sari, Madame Helga conjures a lavish garden of tulips, bird of paradise, wisteria, and an unblinking pansy, while a crystal magenta hummingbird hovers, lured by the sweetness of Madame's mind. Ganesh sways over twin embroidery elephants who have walked free of their decorative tapestry to becoma Helga's guardian perts. A skull's base takes root, and the mind fruits with a lineage of platinum cranium-seeds, a succession of souls yet to be reborn within the lush magical loam of Helga's Dream. Visitors have only to enter the home beyone the Jane Lillian Vance Grotto to indulge in Reve Helga, the anti-hotel oeuvre of the amazing Warrior Queen.