How are you experiencing the lockdown?
At first, I began a very serious lockdown, even though cases were rare on my Caribbean island. Quickly, the association Saint-Martin Uni (for which I had already worked during Hurricane Irma in September 2017) began working on the Covid-19 health crisis.
Since then, I am both non-confined, as my associative involvement is intensive and precious… and confined in my small house on the edge of nature, with a terrace overflowing with vegetation and fishponds, my zen passion. It is true that this serene cocoon rests my sensitivity and gives me the peace I need to create.
What is your state of mind?
I am constantly in love with life, smiling and curious… Yet, with this crisis, the world seems strange to me, full of inconsistencies. And even if less joyful feelings have knocked at my door, I have remained, like any awakened artist, connected to the consciousness of Life.
I just realized that positioning myself in my choices and my "essential" took on a much greater scope. Is it the fact of being confined indoors? Smile
Does this confinement experience have an impact on your artistic approach?
I was waiting for a large order of artistic material, which ultimately remained blocked in mainland France. This initial frustration turned into a challenge when I decided to accept painting a 2x2 meter canvas on the theme of Covid-19 in St-Martin.
The priority was to redefine my habits, to find alternative solutions. A quest… in all senses! As this format didn't fit as I wanted in my small studio, I installed it in my "living" room. The urgency and constraint made me realize that one must dare to "choose," "decide" not to stop at limits, and "explore" the abundance of possibilities.
Do you practice during lockdown? If so, can you tell us about your new works?
I work in unequal proportions: little for painting, a lot for the association. This first canvas, still unfinished, on the theme of water, imposed itself easily since water is one of the elements that shares our island life daily. However, swimming is currently forbidden.
This creation allows for imaginative escape, the impalpable and the ever-present. A canvas is ultimately only the reflection of the soul and virtual or vivid desires present or sublimated by thought.
And the one who shares my life has not yet received its first colors… I offer you its "structural" birth.
