"Candlelite" In Bread Delight $4,400.00 CAD

I’m from a small place called Berson near Bordeaux in west south France. My childhood was infused with the culture of a traditional French village, gossip and old stones, accordion “flonflon” and Strauss waltzes without forgetting August carnival.

My parents ran a small trade business and when I was 5 they also took over my grandfather’s vineyard. So, all together, from farming to trading, I developed the skills of perseverance, resourcefulness, quality craftmanship, and communication. At age 9 a woman painter client of my father gave me the most beautiful book I had ever seen, an illustrated Chinese story-book. I think it was the main inspiration of my childhood, an encouragement to believe in the power of expressing my heart.

A classical French education in boarding school introduced me to rebellion, rock’n roll, cinema and classical dance. In 1982 I found myself in the “big” city of Bordeaux. I started to go to the mime school of Philippe Bizot. For the next 5 years I worked with different theater companies and I took jazz and African dance classes. There I also opened up to Arabic culture and all together to a multicultural life. I added travel to my insatiable curiosity to meet more and more people. In 1987 I was working in Switzerland, saving to go live in the Caribbean for a while. With a last minute turn of thought, after meeting some Quebecquois, I bought a ticket for Montréal. When I arrived in December, I questioned my sanity. But I know now, it was meant to be. In retrospect, I feel that moving to Canada has been one of the best thing that has happened to me. From there I kept travelling back and forth to France via Caribbean. After a first trip in 1988 in the Okanagan, I swore that I would come back to western Canada. In 1990, I did and a new part of my life started.

For a couple of years I traveled more still between the Gulf islands and the Yukon. In 1992 I stopped in Nanaimo and I went to Malaspina College. I took some courses in their fine art program with Ian Garriock and Iris Church, I also attended an E.S.L program to improve my English. From then on I kept taking courses with different artists, including, Tony Onley in watercolour, Heather Spears in life drawing, Carole Ray in lino cut, and ceramic with Ian Nattras and Deb Taylor. I also kept going to life drawing classes which is my favorite way of learning.

Delphine, my baby girl, was born in 1995. From 1996 to 97 I participated in many group exhibitions on the island. In 1998, I had a solo show called “peephole” at the Parksville Art Council. At that time I also decided to give a try at craft, mostly to justify my craving for doing art. So for the next 5 or 6 years I tried to sell art in craft shows and markets. The good thing about this it is that I met with many good people. Finally, in 2003, I won the first prize award at the Sooke Fine Art Show and, around this time, I also became very ill and my family fell apart. These combined events made me determined to pursue my dream.

Today the focus of my art work is in ceramic, but I also work in acrylic paint, ink, collage, etc. My approach to everything I create artistically is through dance: when I draw I dance with line; when I paint I dance in colour; and when I work the clay, I dance with its mass. Movement fascinates me because it becomes an expression. And I plan to keep on dancing.