After studying fine arts in Paris as well as movie & theater production and exhibition curating, I started my professional life in the backstage of operas and musicals in Paris. From Kurt Weil’s “Three penny Opera” to Bizet’s “Carmen” I first learned from the old Italian masters of the stage (Giorgio Streller and Pier Luigi Pizzi) until I embraced my own artistic calling.
As a young artist I was questioning who I was and what my art should be. So much had been done already, how could I find my own unique way to create? My artistic inquiry really started in 1993 while spending a year of art residency in India. Being based in Mumbai, the city’s walls became my ground to investigate in my paintings the relationship between colours, emotions and time of the day. This was my frame and my question, my entry into wonder, my first red thread.
Later as I was traveling through Asia I started painting on found papers, an easily transportable medium. I became fascinated by the accidental effects I could discover endlessly painting and collaging this basic material. It is often through accident that artists like scientist discover and investigate. After collaging papers for a few years I came across a very different fascinating material: crystals and gemstones. From the most common brown paper I shifted to the most precious gems. Purchasing 20kgs of gemstones beads in Jaipur, India, I started using them to create. This new art material opened a door. Working with it I found what was to be my main object of artistic wonder: LIGHT. Light carried endless possible experiencing, amazement and questioning. A medium and a subject of exploration at the same time, it was also a spiritual, philosophical and scientific mystery. Who hasn’t gazed in awe and wonder into the infinity of a starry night sky? Who hasn’t wondered about Einstein’s theory of relativity and what lies beyond the speed of light? Light was the living mystery I became fascinated with.
Maintaining a collage approach of composing my pieces, I investigated many materials and techniques. I used threads, cables, wires, metal, and Perspex to create objects in which crystals and gemstones would play with light, reflecting and refracting it. I explored sacred geometry, adding mirrors to multiply effects and perceptions. I learned how to make my own mirrors with gold and silver leaves. Compositions grew larger and kinetic, creating many varieties of light and shadow effects.
At this time I started creating large commission pieces for public and private spaces, collaborating with architects and interior designers.
Once an artist becomes passionately immersed in a subject, the art production takes on a life of its own. Each piece already carries the next piece in its evolution. The work flows and all kinds of synchronicities take place that support the creative process through accidents, problems/solutions and discoveries. When at work the hands become very intimate with the medium and know what to do without “thinking”. The piece tends to shape itself while all the senses naturally work together. There is a constant dialogue between the medium, its potentials and the inspiration that keeps the artist’s wonder alive.
It was a natural next step when in 2002 I came across optic fibre and decided to use it as a new medium. Optic fibre is a light transmitting thread used mainly in telecommunication to send information. Just the thought of traveling light and information filled me with wonder. The mystery of light reaching us from the far end of the universe was bewitching to me. The use of this new medium opened beautiful possibilities. I could play with it in many ways. I first mounted crystal beads on it and lit them from inside. Then I developed my own way to sculpt and carve light in a mass of optic fibres creating large organic forms and later humanoid figures of thousands of light points. Making photographs of the work and playing with the light became part of the exploration.
Curiosity and wonder also pushed me to learn some of the new digital tools that technology now offers to artists. Combining sculpting and 3D modeling, I gave birth to a family of ethereal beings made of constellations of light points, the “homos luminosos,” Latin for Man of Light. The “Homos Luminosos” awaken wonder in people, because they play with perceptions and illusion. The brain links all the points together to “co-create” the “holographic” form/ figure, awakening a sense of discovery and curiosity. Who are these beings? Are they ghosts or souls? How are they made? How do they shine?
I wonder myself who are these “Homos Luminosos” at the dawn of the 21st century? Which mysterious questions are they asking? Which quantum leap of evolution do they stand for? Between quantum physics, artificial intelligence, parallel reality and the healing of the human family constellation, which paradigm shift are they reflecting?
Experiencing an artwork shaping by itself, integrating unexpected accidents, difficulties and discoveries as parts of the whole, awakens a deep trust in the self-organizing capacity of life itself. To nurture oneself at this source of wonder transmits aliveness, trust and resilience through the ups and downs of life. It helps us look at life with openness and readiness in the face of the unexpected that it holds. Having experienced myself how art could help me restore and reinvent myself in the mist of life crisis I felt a deep call to explore the relationships between art and consciousness, art and transformation, art and healing.
After years of professional art making, I also wanted to free myself from the constraints of commissioned projects and reconnect with the joy of letting art happen and emerge out the accidental and the unknown. This call to explore and reinvent again and again my relationship to art drove me towards the study of Gestalt art therapy and the Expressive Arts for Therapy and Coaching. I am a continuous explorer of all forms of contemporary psychotherapy and healing that support access to conscious and expanded creative potentials.
I was blessed to study with great masters such as Paolo Knill for the Expressive Arts, , Stanislav Grof for Holotropic Breathwork, Martin Kalff for Jungian Dream work and Sandplay, Javier Melguizo Gestalt & Bio Energy, Svagito Liebermeister for Family Constellations and Thomas Hübl for Mystical principles of Healing, Eric de Bonts for Clown Creator.
At this time I dedicate my time to artistic investigation on the theme of perception and I facilitate artistic and therapeutic experiences that foster inquiry, discovery, self-awareness and personal transformation in group settings or individual sessions.
