Deborah Azzopardi does not paint icons. She has made work for famous names, but icons are not her subject.
"I don't actually paint icon art."
Amy Winehouse was the exception, and the first.
The request came from Amy's parents, Mitch and Janis, and the answer was not an automatic yes. Deborah went home, slept on it and drew, in her head and on paper, until she knew she could do it.
"It's a very big undertaking. I felt a huge responsibility."
Conversations began in 2015 and the painting was released as a limited edition silk-screen print in 2016. In between came nearly a year of coffees, getting-to-know-you chats and dreaming. Deborah needs to see the finished painting before she starts. And she does it alone.
"As an artist, you're on your own. There's no team behind me."
She could not use photographs taken by others, because their photographers own the copyright, so she invented her own reference. Her daughter modelled, with the same long neck, shoulders and collarbones as Amy. Amy's mother, who looked so much like her, showed many family photographs. Then came make-up. Deborah says she isn't really a make-up person, but she studied Amy's look until it was right.
There is a thread back to Ssshhh, where only the lips and chin appear. Amy has the eyes too, and those lashes were her signature. The rose and the hair were never in doubt. The colour was inspired by 1960s comics, where Superman and Spider-Man had electric blue in their hair, because Amy was electric. Behind her is a ray of sunshine yellow. There is no shading.
"It is what it is."
Deborah's paintings usually follow desire: the wanting, the teasing and the games. This one follows something else. Amy sang that love is a losing game, and Deborah doesn't dispute it.
"She was right."
But everything Amy's family shared with her told a different story. Stories, photographs, memorabilia, and the ordinary carrier bag of holiday snaps every family keeps, tipped upside down on the table. This was a girl who was loved. And Janis told Deborah something that settled the whole painting.
"All she ever did was share her love."
So the title came from the family chats, not the artist. Love Is the Answer. Deborah calls the painting a love letter, and the letter is Amy's, written through Deborah's hand and brush. A girl who gave so much love, and who still does.
"I wanted to be honest and true to what I saw and what I heard."
Mitch and Janis saw nothing until the very end, not even a drawing. They met the work as large limited edition screen prints, and Deborah was nervous. Then Mitch said, quietly and not for anyone to hear, that Amy would have loved them.
"That's a big deal. The biggest compliment."
The screen prints carry three signatures: Deborah's, Mitch's and Janis's. Signed around a kitchen table, alongside some Macaroni cheese pasta (Janis’s favourite), the family and the artist are friends now. They hardly ever talk about the painting.
A decade on, Amy is bigger than ever, and the message hasn't aged a day.
"She was surrounded by love. And love is still the answer."