“What I believe in… the first thing that comes to my mind is music, because… yes, why actually? Because music is something that I know will stay with me my whole life. I know that it will always catch me, no matter what happens. It will always inspire me, heal me, and fulfil me. I can rely on music to give me meaning in this life. It is like a release from the torments of existence. I think that music is our connection – that doesn’t just apply exclusively to music, I think that it applies to the arts in general. It is our connection, our mouthpiece to something higher, to the divine, to the universal.”

Marvin plays the flute, the transverse flute and the piccolo, to be precise. I asked him whether there was a particular piece of music that would transport him straight to the divine. He said it was Sonatine for Flute and Piano: II. Andante Espressivo by Dutilleux.

His smallest shows the beginning of this piece.

The note stems carry you from the red, carnal existence into an unknown land. You are blinded by white light. They carry you further, further, up to their fruit, the tunes, tying into the sky. You bite into the fruit pulp and you are filled with uplifting energy. A piece of heaven! The staves are like the literal stairway to heaven (or a ladder to heaven?), the golden path from the torments of existence into the divine. When I painted the smallest, I first thought of a transition from red to blue to symbolise that transition from carnal existence into heaven (red with connotations of blood, suffering, torment), blue, of course, to symbolise the sky. But then I noticed that it looks like the French flag – and the French capital just happens to be Marvin's heaven on earth.