The style of Rose’s work is flat and cartoonish, but the content runs much deeper. In this painting we see a woman pouring tea for a man who has just arrived, probably for a first date. The upright bouquet of roses reflects the man’s tenseness, while the woman seems more relaxed in her own house. The artist says “Courting can be romantic, hopeful, fun, exciting and often stressful. And there may be secrets.”
Furthermore, Rose states: “I like to play with enigmatic images and create scenes that are mysterious and a little uncomfortable, setting the mood but leaving interpretation to the viewer. Here we have other people in the house (family members?). Why is one levitating and the other bathing? The bather has a rock on the floor that seems to have escaped from the adjacent locked room. It is kind of unusual to have a room full of boulders. Maybe it has something to do with the weight of so many secrets.”
