Cati Burnot

Cati Burnot

Can you tell us more about your concrete experience of the lockdown ?

At first, I started a very serious lockdown, although cases were rare on my Caribbean island. Quickly, the « Saint Martin Uni » association (for which I had already worked after Hurricane Irma in September 2017) started to work for the Covid-19 health crisis.

Since then, I am both non-confined, since my associative investment is intensive and precious ... and confined in the end of my house on the edge of nature, with a terrace overflowing with vegetation and fish basins, my Zen passion. It is true that this serene cocoon supports my sensitivity and gives me the peace I need to create.

What is your personal state of mind ?

I am a constant lover of life, smiling and curious... However, with this crisis, the world seems strange to me, full of inconsistencies. And even if less joyful feelings knocked on my door, I remained, like any awake artist, connected to the consciousness of Life.

I just realized that positioning myself in my choices and my "essentials" was taking on a much wider scope. Is it being confined to my interior? Smile

Does the lockdown experience have an impact on your art ?

I was awaiting a large order for artistic material, which ultimately remained stuck in mainland France. This initial frustration turned into a challenge when I decided to agree to create a 2x2 meter canvas about the Covid-19 in St-Martin.

The priority was to redefine my habits, to find alternatives. A quest… in every way! As this format did not fit as I wanted in my small workshop, I installed it in my "living" room. The urgency and the constraint made me realize that we must dare to "choose", "decide" not to stop at the limits and "explore" the abundance of possibilities.

Do you practice your art during the lockdown ? if yes, can you tell us about your new pieces ?

I work in unequal proportions: a little for my painting, a lot for the association. This first canvas, still unfinished, on the theme of water, prevailed easily since water is one of the elements that share our island life on a daily basis. However, swimming is currently prohibited.

This creation allows the escape in imagination, the intangible and the always present. A canvas is ultimately only a reflection of the soul and the virtual or perennial 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.

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