I first encountered the work “the Gleaners” by Jean-François Millet in 1978. I was particularly enchanted by the image of women hunched over in the heat of the day, busy collecting the leftover harvest which remained there in the field. I liked the fact that Millet chose to paint the simple people who sweat, free of any false airs or the expensive attire of knights and high-society. I liked the fact that the painter chose to focus on those women whose daily lives are occupied with survival and collecting food for their hungry families awaiting them. However, it angered me to see women hunched over collecting leftovers, and I immediately saw potential, as an artist, to create a creative dialogue which might be corrective, placing emphasis precisely on the beauty of their simplicity, and empowering them with the strength they deserve. Since then, the gleaners have been a central theme in my work, alongside other subjects I have treated. The Gleaners are a great inspiration within my art-making. I have studied them closely and used them as inspiration to create drawings, prints, etchings, paintings and more. For many years, the Gleaners underwent a process of growth together with me, and through my work I slowly released them. They were transformed over the years from hunched women to women who stand strong and tall and discover the world.  
In my last work on the subject, they are absent from the painting but have left their mark as transparent shadows from their past