MY BIOGRAPHY – MA BIOGRAPHIE

 

PAINTING – LA PEINTURE

« Yes, to paint is to love, to live, to see again« , Henri Miller

« Oui, peindre c’est se remettre à aimer, à vivre, à voir » Henri Miller

For my exhibitions, see the page – voir  » Expositions majeures – Major exhibits »

 What is in my soul guides me. That is somewhat what the great Leonardo da Vinci said,

adding that otherwise it is not art.

Intuitive and poetic images in link with poetry and words; atmospheres, vibrations through lines and colour associations; meaningful abstracts, like stories rendered on canvas through colours and composition and the needed techniques;  snapshots registered in mind’s  memories,  rendered after long maturation or intuitive action, alla prima, on the canvas,  feelings and emotions bursting  out in abstracts while in the full grip of them; world events translated on canvas under  their emotional implication.

My figurative paintings are never copied from nature but inspired by it and rendered through the feeling they arouse in me.

 Painting and seeing a work take shape on canvas is always a joy. The eye sees and registers, the soul guides the work, urgency calls for the brush, the knife, hands, fingers, feet…Colours, composition and harmony express the essence of things

By the hasards of life. I was born in 1941 under the bombs in Germany. My father, from Vienna, Austria and my mother, a native swiss, both of various european origins, the family name being polish, my grandmother of german origin but also estonian and russian, all of them adventurous people. The war and fortunes of life brought my parents to live here and there, for threee or four years at a time. My schooling therefore took place in the swiss french mountains, in Montreal Canada in English, in italian in Lugano, Switzerland, then in Los Angeles USA where I completed HIgh Schoo and did  art studies at UCLA (University of Southern California) and lastly in in Vienna, Austria, Rome, Italy, the country of art and then in Geneva, Switzerland. I worked in several fields like fashion, Banks and International agencies and a Non -Governmental organization and teaching languages in Vienna and Geneva which I still do now with great pleasure. A creative teaching either private or for several private schools, aiming at the students goals, for top managers to youngsters, preparing also for the big international exams. I therefore have met all sorts of people, observing with a curious, somewhat distant eye in order to adapt rapidly.

I married a greek, had two lovely children, gave language lesson to them and their friends at home, then developped a personal, very original successful artistic activity and business during ten years that I could do at home, decorating with my art some of the top class hotels in Geneva and partiipating in many exhibitions. I also made very orifinal vegetal mural masks of imaginary caracters of greek mythology or King Arthur’s legends. One ominous day  tragedy befell both of my children, we lost our son and a terrible mental illness befell our daughter. Divorce followed. The curtain then fell down on this part of my life and I was left with nothing but my creativity and teaching.

Painting and writing came to my rescue, both had been my dear hobbies since I was twelve years old, drawing and long letters which at the crucial time turned into poetry, so as to express the distress in the most concise way  the feelings assailing me, by and by, bringing me back to life, after going back thanks to poetry, to the roots of my varied life already early marked by abandon and death. It took time which was not wasted. I started showing my paintings in rather big exhibits during which I gave my own Poetry readings, dramatized and accompanied by talented young musicians, inviting my guests into my inner world and the expression of my life’s experiences.  I joined main poetry associations in Geneva and by and by was invited to exhibit here and there. Love also came to my rescue, a major theme in my poems, the relationship between men and women also apperaing in some of my paintings. I am now happy again in this new and quite different phase of my life and ready to meet it’s challenges.  I also thank my parents for transmitting their love of art, music museums and litterature to me which I still cherish today and thus continue studying the old famous masters. While in Rome, I studied GIORGIO VASARY’s book XIV-XVI century, on the great Italian Renaissance masters, still today a reference book for the study of History of Art, the first methodolocial and biographical study ever done. 

Today, painting is the joy of my life and I am concentrating on it since I have been approached by world wide serious galeries to exhibit with them in the big shows in the USA and even throughout the world. Recognition has been given to my paintins by them and by Saatchionline the biggest world online art selling website and other websites showing some of my paintings. I am most grateful for this chance given to my paintings that I really didn’t expect. It comes late in life but I coudn’t paint how I do now without going through all that I have experienced. I shall continue because  it is a joy and a need, a sort of welcome meditation, each painting spruting out of my inner-self, letting loose freely of what has to be said through colour and composition. Each painting has tells a story or renders a poetic image, it’s light and vibrations.

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POETRY – LA POÉSIE

« L’Essence et seulement l’essence » – « The essence and only the essence » Henri Miller

Rythmical and musical rimes, images to say what words cannot; poems about life’s pains, surprises, loves, death and greeving, the littles games of love and irresistable attraction. Poetry to review the past in order to help coming back to life and love, to make new choices along the way after loosing everything that counts, the curtain having fallen on a many years play and nothing left. A keen,, curious, playful and perky eye on human relations, specially between women and men and love, the everlasting mystery.

Poetry has kept me company for forteen years now with readings, booklets, a lot of pleasure and excitement but now it has come to an end, I have said what needed to be said. (see the page Poetry) and between the two, painting has won and new challenges are waiting for me.

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Laisser résonner les mots, le rythme des vers, les rimes qui me viennent quasiment par miracle ; réduire à l’essence-même  ce qui veut naître. Les mots, rien que les mots justes et la musique des vers sont ce qui m’importe dans ce langage de l’émotion, si personnel par essence, qu’est la poésie. Des poèmes pour dire toute une vie sur laquelle est tombé le rideau de scène, laissant le grand vide, le manque de tout ce qui compte; pour dire le deuil suprême, la maladie, les souffrances mais aussi la passion, l’attirance, les surprises de la vie, les jeux de l’amour et la vie qui coule, coule… Pour se faire, l’usage d’images à défaut de mots  pour se trouver, retrouver son essence, se guérir et trouver son chemin à travers les choix requis laissant la fin du poème ouverte à l’imagination du lecteur ou spectateur durant mes récitals poétiques. Un regard curieux, pointu, coquin souvent sur les relations entre hommes et femmes et l’amour, la mystère éternel.

J’aime interpréter mes vers et ceux d’autres poètes, leur donner vie en les théâtralisant lors mes récitals lors de mes ex positions de peintures, toujours accompagnés de musiciens expérimentés avec lesquels j’élabore le choix de musique appropriée.

J’ai aussi été appelée à organiser des Récital de poésie théâtralisés et en musique pour des sociétés littéraires à Genève et à Aix-en-Provence, tel que la Société Genevoise des Écrivains de Genève, les Poètes de la Cité de Genève, les Arts Club de Genève et Aix-en-Provence et d’autres. 

7 recueils de poésie auto-publiées sont parus et une publication par la maison d’édition Mélibée à Toulouse pour couronner ses années passées avec la poésie qui ont pris fin car je ne peux pas tout faire et surtout bien faire, la peinture ayant pris les devants cette année 2016 en me lançant des défis inattendus et importants. Elle m’a permis de dire ce qui devait l’être, de faire des choix de vie, d’évacuer le trop plein d’émotions en mots justes et forts, de retrouver l’amour et ses jeux, de vivre pleinement à nouveau. (voir la page Revueils et poésie)

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