California Brown Pelican Drawing

I'm a French New-Zealander artist, illustrator and world wanderer passionate about all things organic and living. Born in 1987 in Brittany, France, I grew up high in the French Alps and I have always been fond of that vast sense of space. Spending a lot of time in nature, collecting creatures, making things out of my findings, tracking animals in the forest, observing their behaviors and imagining how it would be to live like one of them. After studying visual art and animation in Angoulême at the Ecole des Metiers du Cinema d'Animation (EMCA) animation school and graduating in 2009. I decided to put my visual arts on hold. The reality of the animation and television industry being removed from dreams of a more sustainable and human world and took up a farming course to get in touch with a way of life rooted in tradition, people and land. Motivated to work with my hands, in the outdoors, with something tangible and living. In doing the farming, as with my artwork, I realized much of what enjoy takes great care and patience, often time consuming and not always financially sustainable. So I threw in the towel and got in line to work in the animation industry. Quickly feeling like life was on hold and going nowhere, I eventually decided to try something else. I rid myself of all unnecessary things and went traveling, allowing myself to refocus and get back in tune with what makes my heart sing, letting the road be my guide. In 2015 back in Europe, as I spent much of my time driving through the countryside, visiting friends and with no fixed address, I regained confidence to pursue my passions, my own way. I picked up a pen again and began covering the paper with intricately detailed line-work, resulting in shapes of intertwined animals, finding personal balance in the craft and lifestyle. I have found my work to focus primarily on animals. They embody and express any emotion, simply and purely. Producing these drawings allows me to get closer to that feeling. Evolutionary as humans, we have a deep interconnectedness to the animal world. They bring about emotions such as attraction, repulsion, interest, fear, disgust. They speak in a universal language. A piece is usually started driven by an appeal to textures, patterns and form. An energy. As it slowly evolves it reveals new aspects. Always a step ahead of me, expressing things I am not yet consciously aware of. Learning what it's about as it goes along.