I was born in Cormeilles, in France, in 1976. I was raised in Val D’oise, in Parmain. As a small child, I used to draw very much. At the age of seven, I did my first sculptures with some clay that I found in the garden. My mother and father are both artists through and through. My father has a good brushstroke and produces oil figurative paintings. However, in his young age, he could not pursue is artistic calling; his mother was suspicious of his choice and pressed him to study electronics. My mother, on the other hand, in addition to a rather demanding occupation in management, filled up her spare time by practicing painting on silk. Once retired, she initiated herself to stained glass window making with a master glazier. She also learned to paint in watercolors. She now paints on wood, using egg tempera technique. She also is president of “l’Artistique de l’Isle-Adam”, an association that takes charge of the fall artistic fair “Centre d’Art Jacques Henri Lartigue”. My father contributes to this fair by preparing the catalog and posters, and by creating on a yearly basis a video concerning the guest of honor.

Having been immersed in my childhood on hearing the stories of the people close to my parents who they admired, I dreamed to become a professional artist. In primary school and in college I kept reaching a note of 17 on 20 in plastic arts. I spent my childhood near Auvers sur Oise, and I vowed a great admiration to Van Gogh. In my fifth year of primary school, I did a replica of “Église d’Auvers” in oil pastel and a sunflower oil painting that I offered to my teacher, Monsieur Marie, who already saw in me a future artist. At the age of 12, I took part for the first time in an amateur artistic fair where I produced six watercolors and pastel drawings. The first work that I sold was to Madame Duval who, at the time, was in charge of the cultural affairs at the city hall of Parmin. This encouraged me to pursue in this field.

I was impatient to finish my studies and reach my sixteenth birthday so that I could dedicate myself totally to studying art. After college, I spent two years at the “Institut supérieur d’art décoration et publicité”, where I learned different techniques of artistic expression. Sculpture and live model sculpting attracted me the most. I thereby chose to leave this school before I obtained the diploma and I persuaded my parents to let me get a specialty in sculpture. At first I wanted to join the Compagnons stonecutter association, but they would only accept men. I was prevented from entering the Boulle school of technical and vocational education because I did not have a high school diploma. I then looked for possibilities to do my classes with a master sculptor. On thing leading to another, through the help of Jean Marais, in Vallauris, I contacted Pétrus, his master. I went to Vallauris to learn direct stone sculpting. I had found my way: stone sculpture, anatomy and the pursuit of beauty. Through his rigor and talent, Pétrus taught me his art and his dedication for it. Thanks to a funding that he obtained in the seventies from “Fondation de France”, I could have my own model, Sophie, each day from 09h to 21h.

I learned my profession through the implementation of strict laws of anatomy that is the traditional basis of the Ancients. This was for me the best way to learn. Back to my parents place, I locked myself away, sculpting with the teaching of my master in mind. During one year, I prepared an exhibition out of works done in stone from St-Maximin in Oise. I presented three sculptures at the exhibition of Parmain and obtained the first prize. At the artistic fair of Gouvieux in Oise, five of my works were selected and I obtained the prize for sculpture. Even more encouraging, as I was merely 17, the city hall of Parmain asked me to create a 700kg monument for their entrance hall. At 18, I worked for my father enterprise during the summer holiday period. With the earnings I could go to India for six months, travel thousands of kilometers, going through Delhi, Bombay, Madurai, Pondicherry and Calcutta, and discovering temples and sculptors. Although difficult, this trip has enriched my social and artistic life.

Back in France, I realized the monument for the city of Parmain. It was inaugurated a few months later with my master Pétrus attending. Pétrus created a sculpture academy in Paris and named the promotion of 1995/96 by my name.

Then I felt that it was time for me to create my own workshop. I launched it with the help of the Canal+ television program called “SOS campagne”. I was selected among 37 candidates to run a workshop in Pailhares, in Ardèche, where I spent three years doing exhibitions, and hoping a better future from specific commitments at Annonay and St-Agrève that were never concluded. This was a painful period, suffering from cold, lacking money, lacking food (the pasta saved me); in other words, often the true life of an artist. But I met solidarity; people gave me food and heating wood. I traded modeling for a sculptor for bags of clay and the firing of my works. Monsieur Bazy, a lawyer from Lyon, helped me much by buying many of my works.

Following these three years, I had the opportunity to leave for Île de la Réunion. I decided rapidly to take the risk, in spite of the fact that I could possibly not find any work. Friends of my parents transported my tools, a compressor and stone blocks in their container, in order to help me start some work. They put me up at their place for two weeks, giving me enough time to find my own shelter. I now realize that this was my destiny and that I made the right choice. With my press book in hand, I went to each and every city hall to propose my services. In the meantime, I rapidly found a job at the “Association sportive et culturelle des avirons” in the village where I lived.

Following my tour of the city halls, Jacques Técher, mayor of Cilaos asked me to propose a model for a monument representing a “porteur de chaise”, in line with a city heritage. I was selected to create that monument. I named it “Porteur de vie”. It represented what the carrier had contributed to the life of Cilaos. He carries the planet on his chair and, thanks to the carriers of life, although lost in the mountain, the village could become an important tourist site of Île de la Réunion. I portrayed all actors and elements that have contributed to this life: the vine, fishing, the road (300 turns in the mountain), a pregnant woman representing prosperity, and the village. I chose to reproduce symbols which the population of Cilaos identify with, so that it would feel concerned and proud of the monument, and so that it would see in it recognition for the hardship and hard life of the carriers. Unanimous reactions comforted me in my choice to create a monument that reached the sensitivity of the people of Cilaos.

Only basalt and lava is found at Île de la Réunion. In order to obtain the refinement that I wanted, I chose to create the monument in serpentine imported from Zimbabwe. I therefore went to Africa in February 2000 to choose the stone in a quarry. I faced many difficulties. There was a lack of gasoline due to the crisis that prevailed before the elections. There was the jealousy from local sculptors who stole the rocks that interested me. I was threatened to go to jail for not paying taxes that were fake. Finally, it took one month and a half for the 5,2 tons of serpentine to reach Île de la Réunion. I took more than one year to create the monument; I gave the first blow of sledgehammer in September 2000 and the last one in September 2001. Then, there was a long period of polishing. In the meantime, elections brought a change in political orientation at the city hall. For some time, the new mayor disregarded the sculpture, not even willing to see it, and felt free not to respect engagements of its predecessor. Finally, his entourage convinced him to at least see the sculpture. He then was seduced. This also comforted me with my belief that I ought to create monuments that people can identify with. The monument was installed in front of the city hall and inaugurated on December 20th 2001.

Stone sculptor, dream sculptor. This is my calling…