Paris...ok .. as this story is one of chance./. serendipity... coincidence.. friendship ..shock.. and lots of squares of chocolate, cheese and bread I'll do my best to make it somewhat coherent.

The reader is going to have to use imagination to fill in the unintelligible blanks and lapses.

Anyway, here goes:...

......One morning I was walking my dog YoYo when I noticed he had stopped under the wall where there's always a large mural installation area provided by the City of Paree... he was munching on all of this stuff below the mural which, as it turned out...were squares of cheese that had fallen off  the mural which had been installed the night before...the mural was a highly pixellated version on Gustave Courbet's 1866 painting..l'Origine du Monde...considered scandalous at the time 150 years ago, and  even by many today. After looking more closely one could see the mural to be a puzzle composed of thousands of squares of white/dark chocolate ...white and yellow cheese and white bread..

.we're all together on this so far right?..

.

So, I researched the original painting and discovered that it's part of the permanent collection at the world famous d'Orsay Museum here in Paris. After a phone call to the museum and a conversation with a director I arrived at the museum and was led to the gallery where the painting was on view.

.VOILA!...

There wasn't  only one "Origine" but two..there was, of course, the original and another...., a copy, just being completed after 17 days of work in the museum by the Paris-born Australian artist Lilliane Milgrom....so, with only  a few minutes remaining on her 17 day permit ..; (and she definitely has to be outta' there not a minute after the 17 days are up)...she explained her project at the museum ( appearing in this video).  I then described the mural to her...she was sceptical and somewhat disbelieving but agreed to visit the mural with me that same evening....

Our visit to the mural is documented here...and what more needs to be said,...except thank you Monsieur Courbet, Madame Milgrom and for the editing...thanks to Mademoiselle Pixel.

...so there it is;.serendipity, friendship and for some,...shock...