The Beginning
Everyone has wondered how this world began
I have also asked myself this question, which has unfortunately remained unanswered until now. Unsurprisingly, scientists around the world have failed to answer it. Everyone speaks of four elements.
The world of mineralogy and fossils inspired me for this series because I stumbled upon it by chance thanks to my partner Michel Lavergne. He discovered the existence of mineralogy for me. We went on excavations in different countries, which is remarkably interesting, especially when you find stones or fossils yourself that are already millions of years old or more. At mineralogy exhibitions, I was fascinated by minerals created by nature, but also by fossils of various animals and plants. I thought about how strange it is—they are no longer here and yet a trace remains, and what will remain after us?
A Discovery for Me: The Nautilus
But the discovery for me was that some of them still live to this day. I will not list everything, my favorite specimen is the Nautilus. I managed to see one of these animals at the Barcelona Oceanarium. This astonishing creature has managed to survive for so long, approximately 450 million years, almost unchanged. One of the surviving crustaceans from the age of dinosaurs: Living Fossil. The Nautilus is also a symbol of inner beauty in nature. The shell is one of the famous natural objects that synchronizes the golden ratio—the PHI number.
Its particularity is found in all organic structures. I am drawn to the external beauty of things and their complexities, not to mathematical and geometric calculations. I am more interested in life as development and change, as beginning and end. In my works, the Nautilus symbolizes a window into the past and also water, water being one of the elements in the creation of the world.
Beginning Without End
120x90cm – 2022
Life and Death I
90x70cm – 2021
Life and Death II
90x70cm – 2021
Nautilus
68x56cm – 2015
The Song of the Sirens
95x62cm – 2015
The Source
80x57cm – 2015
The Beginning: These are the four elements
The foundation of the creation of life. Earth, Wind, Water, and Fire—from this chaos, from their intertwining and mixing, life was created.
But how to represent it, how to draw all of this?
I needed to find a way and create a new technique; at the same time, I wanted to remain faithful to drawing, as I work primarily with paper. On different sheets of paper, I draw the main images, the figures, then I cut with scissors or with a scalpel, or I simply tear with my hands the necessary places into pieces. Then I combine these pieces into an overall composition and glue them onto cardboard.
The painting is assembled, and I treat the drawing as a whole. Since the earth is a foundation, it is multilayered; this effect is achieved by gluing paper in several layers. I use gypsum to create relief of the ground and stones. The symbols of Air and Fire are present in the work in the form of plexiglass. I break the plexiglass into necessary pieces and in places I burn it with fire. The plexiglass is also the foundation of the painting and holds the entire composition; it simultaneously provides transparency and weightlessness. Water is represented by fossils and shells. All together they create an image in which you will find elements of the past, in the form of bone remains and fossils, and the present in the form of living beings. Since the present cannot exist without the past, and the future cannot be created without the present.
However, do not look for realism in my works—that is not the case.
I draw my vision and I invite you to look at the world with different eyes.
The Mystery
103x80cm – 2015
The Past, The Present
78x58cm – 2016
Hatching
100x90cm – 2019
Window into the Past
108x80cm – 2019