Please, introduce yourself, tell us a little bit about you.
I live in Paris. I’ve been an illustrator for 15 years now and before this I was working as a graphic designer for record companies, production companies, well various freelance jobs. I enjoy as much vector work as photographic work, specially photomontage. I enjoy it very much because for me I feel like I was a child playing with toys, trying different things, putting together footage and trying to come up with a surprising artwork. A share my time between commercial work and personal work. I always try to keep some free time for experimentation.
Recent, current or future projects you are involved in that you would like to share with us?
I’m working on some artworks based on footage of robots, cables, naked body parts, animal fur. I just like mixing animal things and technological elements, it makes something very surprising at the end. And I’m starting a new comic book !
What kind of things do influence your work?
Mainly daily life. Looking at things while I’m walking, buying food, talking to friends, etc. But also some books, blogs, art shows. Last month I went to Berlin to attempt the Pictoplasma conference, it was so inspiring to listen to all the speakers talking about their practise and to see their création process.
How is your normal process of collaging? (idea or commission, where do you get your materials or find your images, which is your cutting technique, best way you have found to paste, where do you work and how, and very important: what do you do with your scraps)
With photomontage, I prefer making personnal work, commissioned work is extremely difficult to achieve, technically of course because of the choice of the footage but also because of the creating process : i just need to stay as free as possible to build up the image. And usually with commission work the client wants to make change and then it becomes quickly a complete nightmare ! Because a photomontage is like a Rubik’s cube : if you change an element, another one has to be changed. My technique is pretty straightforward : the Pen in Photoshop, that’s definitely the best tool ever, even if it’s time-consuming. I always recycle my artworks, so scraps will be recycled some time or other.
Which is your latest discovery in the collage world?
To get free of preconceived ideas. It’s a pièce of advice I’m giving to myself as well because I have a strong tendancy to make the same things and to follow too many rules. My lattest discovery : trying to create a strong artwork that’s not symetric, that’s more unstructured, more free.
6. What do say your friends/family about your collage work? And, what do you do when you are not working on art?
Spending hours on cutting out files has become a joke with some of my friends who understand what it is ! But it’s like a trance, it’s actually quite entertainning. Nevertheless , I love being far from my computer and travel and practise méditation or yoga as an example.
Would you like to ask anything to John Baldessari? Shoot.
I used to be very into conceptual art and minimal art, and I like his work very much. Well he’s a real artist, he has an integrity, he’s been keeping experimenting and I admire that. A question: what keeps him being as creative as before? And what experience brings him to his life?
