THE BEAUTIFUL, THE GOOD, THE TRUE
The Birth of a Creation: It is the spirit that breathes inspiration into the artist, planting a flash of insight within the being, and the soul (which is the link between body and spirit) is able to give it form, which will be materialized in the creation of the artwork.
Everything here below is a reflection, Maya (the illusion of a physical world that our consciousness considers reality), yet the only true reality is the divine archetype that resides within each of us.
The spiritual universe cannot be materialized; art uses matter in order to touch upon these spiritual realities.
Approach
Beauty that has meaning, beauty that does good, beauty for the balance of the world.
An approach focused on the spiritual realm, which is an exploration of the metaphysics of the cosmos, through a lyrical, poetic, and surrealist figuration, where two opposing pictorial poles appear: an ultra-smooth surface contrasted with a chaotic relief. This technique of duality allows me to express, with greater force, the dual, opposing universe (shadow and light) in which we are immersed. Shadow and light are complementary; they create the perfection of a whole, the balance of opposing forces, which is called "Harmony." Shi for the Japanese, Tao for the Chinese.
Human beings are also dual in nature, belonging simultaneously to the spiritual world and the universe of appearances.
Some paintings, constructed like bas-reliefs, are halfway between sculpture and painting, to better suggest that the subject seems to emerge from the support.
Artistic creation is an inner surge that arises from an original memory, an inexhaustible source (Mnemosyne), overcoming the source of oblivion (Lethe). This moment allows one to reach, like Timarchus in his astral journey, the spheres of Harmony and Light, an enchanting spectacle of beauty and purity, nourishment for the soul.
Revelations of Plutarch in The Daemon of Socrates:
Locked in a cave, he falls asleep, and his soul takes flight and reaches the spheres. Timarchus sees an enchanting spectacle of harmony and light. He lowers his eyes and sees a vast abyss, a terrifying, severed sphere from which rose groans, howls, laments, and confused tumults that ascended from the depths of the abyss.
Inner Revolution
Painting as a salvation, painting as a surge of life, painting that gives meaning. The soul is connected to the vital breath; it is the link that connects the "creative and immortal spirit" to our physical body here on Earth. In Latin, the word "soul" derives from the word "anima," its origin is universal, and it is found in all the great spiritual traditions drawn from "universal philosophy": the Tibetan Bardo, Orphism, Hinduism, Shintoism, the Book of the Dead of the ancient Egyptians, etc. Celtic and Greek mythologies also recount spiritual journeys.
The soul is that most sensitive, most intimate, most secret part of ourselves, which allows us to intuitively connect to a form of transcendence. Indivisible and irreducible, it is within each of us and accompanies us until the end. Our constitution is ternary: "body, soul, and spirit" (the spirit supports the body, and the soul is the link that connects the body to the spirit). The spirit (animus in Latin) exists before taking on a physical form and continues to exist afterward.
In Hinduism, the soul is called "pakriti," and it attains its goal through the practice of yoga, awareness, knowledge, and detachment.
Several themes serve this approach: metamorphosis, rebirth, mythology, life paths, celebration, carnival, or the hymn to spring; the excesses of our contemporary societies in the gallery I've named "pop art"; "Wonderland," where beings merge with nature; and "aletheia," which means far from the source of oblivion.
"To rediscover universal philosophy, to live it, is to renounce at the same time all the horrors stirred up by the Demiurge. It is to respect life, to love all beings, to strive to be wise, etc... We can only overcome Lies through the Truth of Universal Philosophy. We can only live with Wisdom and Love if we have at least an elementary understanding of it."
Text taken from the book "Universal Philosophy" by Jacqueline Berger, published by DIDI18
In the Odyssey:
"The Immortals will take you to fair-haired Rhadamanthus,
To the Elysian Fields, which are at the very end of the earth.
There the sweetest life is offered to mortals;
Never will there be snow, nor great cold, nor downpours;
Platon imagines a cave in which beings are held captive, chained by plays of shadow and light. The light perceived there is a false light, a simulacrum of the sun. Only the soul's ascent to the spirit through knowledge, the awakening to truth, can free them, and thus allow them to act wisely in this world of appearances.
"Modern" man, materialistic man, emancipated man, rejects the very idea of the soul, considering it a remnant of religious obscurantism. This absence of soul, of meaning in life, ultimately leads to the tyranny of the body and results in a kind of morbid and weary hedonism, a closed system. Man is a prisoner of his illusions, created by his desires and his ignorance—in other words, the "Maya," the mirage of appearances.
"Don Giovanni," or the ceaseless pursuit of pleasure, in order to avoid sinking into the depths of his inner emptiness;
"Medusa," whose gaze petrifies
all those who fall into the trap
of seduction.
When a painting begins, it's the start of an adventure, one that can last several months or be completed in just a few days. Sometimes I leave a painting for several weeks to observe it more closely and then return to it with a fresh perspective.
In the meantime, I start another one; they follow one another, creating a constant buzz in my studio. The site is organized by theme; I move from one subject to another, sometimes simultaneously, depending on my inspiration, even though they all reflect the same intention: the life force.
Pouring Resin
The pouring technique reminds me of my childhood, when my father, a pastry chef, would pour icing over mille-feuille pastries and, with a spatula, skillfully create attractive shapes. He would sculpt tiered cakes with caramel dripping onto cream puffs, chocolate taking on magnificent forms, and candied fruits in a thousand colors. I was fascinated by these cakes, which were works of art to me.
