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| Scenery by Kirsten Glass, 2010, oil on canvas |
I met Kirsten in 1997 when I was looking for a flat and she was looking for a roommate. I visited her place in Bethnal Green (which was to become my place too for a few years). I noticed her LPs on the bookshelf as we talked. I knew we'd become soulmates when I noticed her copy of Never Forever by Kate Bush. We shared a studio down at the end of Bethnal Green Road with our mutual friend Fiona. There we would work, sometimes into the night, breaking up the hours with coffee, Walkers crisps and occasionally Jamaica ginger cake with warm custard. Kate Bush was more often than not playing on the stereo.
Kirsten always listened to Kate Bush on the inside. She heard the personal thoughts and stories that can't be relayed in words. They exist as fantasies floating in one's mind and sometimes they float into another's. Kirsten makes paintings with this understanding. I would often drag her to Liberty to smell perfume. When she found one she liked she would go to a mirror at a cosmetics counter and watch herself spraying on the scent.
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| Kate Bush photographed by Anton Corbijn |
There is no better Christmas song than December Will Be Magic Again by Kate Bush. A dark and light fantasy of icicles, huskies, candlelight, Oscar Wilde, and lovers sleeping under a dusting of snow. Kate's voice is as weightless as a snowflake. It's in this December that Kirsten is walking back from London Fields with her dogs, thinking about sipping a glass of bubbly upon her return to a warm flat.
''ooooh I'm starting to sparkle the dark up...''
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