This situation was made worse by the fact that by the fall of 2014, a very serious leg injury required major surgery, and therefore I had no guarantee that I would be able to paint by early 2015 after a convalescence which I hoped would meet an happy ending, but the outcome of which nevertheless did remain uncertain. On the other hand, everything confirmed in this uncomfortable context that I would be unable to run around, here and there, for meeting and convincing some of the partners that my co-exhibitor and I had identified to support us in our project. However, I had no choice, as it was out of the question that I could ever leave Véronique alone, carrying this burden weight on her shoulders only. Thus, an excruciating time.

In short, it is truly an understatement to say that we had all headwinds against us, and in retrospect the fact that we managed to open the exhibition on scheduled date remains a miracle.
Especially because when it finally opened, it had to close almost immediately due to the November 13th of 2015 barbaric attacks which plunged France's capital into mourning, and temporarily interrupted the exhibition's holding (all the cultural places having closed their doors during the week of horror that followed these atrocities). These attacks then permanently compromised the exhibition's running like that of all other Parisian cultural events, because of the security constraints imposed by Islamic terrorism.

To conclude this chapter on the obstacles encountered on our journey, I will avoid by decency dwelling on the defectors that let us down along the way -without telling us. Or on the hostility of some, who apparently found legitimate and necessary to knock us off course and break our wheels, yet already battered and weakened enough by the bumps and ruts dotting our path. These thoughtless and wanton actions not only made us stumble, they almost made us give up. Absolutely bewildering, when knowing that our only goal was a sincere artistic tribute to Patti Smith's first album.