MY PORTRAIT

I grew up in Chartreuse, France. Surrounded by mountains, meadows and forests. From an early age I felt touched by the limitless creativity of nature and its ability to invent shapes , colors and materials, an extraordinary harmony to give life.

Later when I settled down in the USA I recover this creativity however more powerful as I experience the contrast between nature and the american megalopolises. Guided by this wonder I took an artistic course and became a stylist. The work of volumes and geometries fascinated me, on the other hand the mercantile side of fashion disappointed me. It was when I arrived to Ardèche, while practicing caving, that I connected to my favourite material: Clay.

Eager of novelty, I found in this material an infinite source of creativity and freedom: and it is through pottery that I push my research and experiments by associating the clay forms I create, the minerals I pick  from nature and then grin and fire.

My artistic approach is guided by the search  of the balance between Man and Nature. A balance preserved for a long time, but today so threatened that it questions human resilience. The social sciences characterize humanity by the development of communication: Man is an animal that speaks and writes and whose consciousness has emerged. According to Jack Goody, anthropologist: “It must be taken into account that every social change, for example the Neolithic, was preceded by a change in communication. Its development changed  social life in humans and reduced their dependence on biological phenomena. "
Today , all types of communication are in mutation and nowday`s  Man is constantly connected. We talked through multiple devices. We do not travel to communicate, we send a text.

We publish different things, for a while or forever but the touch , the scent, the pheronones no longer belong to this communication. This communication  is becoming dematerialized: virtual world is increasingly filling the time and space of our world. And yet humans need their natural ecosystem to continue to live and evolve. My pieces are a reconnection to the Earth and express a civilization where nature has taken back its place: they embody the quintessence of human life (creation, art) and its relationship to the natural environment. And beyond that they demonstrate the incredible resilience that nature is able of having, for all forms of life interact with all others and are linked.

My sculptures evoque the rock, the mineral. They are raw and sometimes rugged as if marked by their own temporality or by erosion phenomena. Some parts are smoother, shiner and luminous and show a crystalline side. I play with the contrasts, the plasticity of the ground and the enamels that I create. Some of the glazes are reminiscent of lichens, a living organism that results from a symbiosis between an algae and a fungus and which is capable of living in extreme conditions. Some develop on rocks, different or similar, depending on the rock, climate, orientation, ... It is also often the first living being to develop after a chaos such as after a volcanic eruption. The lichen in my work takes the place of a true symbol of life and union. My work in the studio is very instinctive: my actions are free and spontaneous, guided by my experience of life. I make sure I am in the present moment to transform this inert matter, and my work is felt: I create objects of questioning and rapture. I pick up rocks that I crush and that go into the composition of the enamels that I create. So I find a new collaboration with my natural environment. Non-polluting process, I connect, with this know-how, my philosophy of life and thus give more meaning and depth to my artistic work.I work the soil mainly with the plate. From the stamping molds I create, I make unique and original pieces. I also create directly in modeling. I cook in an electric oven, then either in a raku oven or in stoneware. Sometimes I create bronze lines with the technique of kintsugi (Japanese lacquer and gold powder) to evoke the patient work of man who mends his relationship with Nature.