soft pastels, inks on A4 canson paper – (2018)
Usually my works are made during an extended time span. It can take me months or years to finish a work. This is extremely rare and maybe the first time that i’m doing things this “fast” As i felt mentally drained with the artworks i’m working on lately (paintings & sculptures) and needed to stop losing myself into an overdose of details and rather than mulling too much over it, i just chose to let it be … to be able to face it. Even if it implied a deep dive into some more raw things. So i did a series of drawings with soft pastels for the first time (i guess it’s never too late !) And here is one of them. It can sound weird but it’s never easy to keep things simple, to not over think / overdo what you do (with arts or in life). To accept the spontaneous expression of our self or the other beings, is a precious lesson to learn & experience. But it’s difficult because in many of our societies we’re encouraged to …. not be courageous, to change what is “not normal” in us, to adapt to a norm, to feel ashamed of certain things we do or thoughts we have. It doesn’t have to be like that, it won’t work like that and will only continue to generate inner conflicts. This is why this artwork is important to me, it is just like facing the truth of the moment and not trying to deny it but to just move on from it until the next one.
Mimesis is its name. I love this word, it has several layers, more or less subtle and can be interpreted in many ways (just like the many different philosophical meanings wrapped around it). First, this drawing (to me) feels like a cutaway, the skin has been removed from the face and all we can see are the colored energetic links and connections in full display. And luckily, mimesis in a way, echoes “mimetic” muscles we can find in the human face, they control our expression. This means, here are the expressions of one, showed without any mask / skin. And this is the notion that matters to me. It’s not about “imitating” the truth of self (through fake and coded facial expressions), but incarnating our real self and also to express it in the most authentic way, its intertwined dynamic with the march of the Universe. It could be a positive approach to the daily Life, once we are ready to accept the reality of our self, with its weirdness and wonders, then it’d be way easier to do the same with others. Which would be the first step towards mutual acceptance and respect, leading to a second step … the Harmony*
If you read this i hope you’re on this way (of acceptance) so your existence is a very interesting experience (even if complicated), we’re not supposed to be happy or sad, but to Be-come the One we (all) Are (forming).