A Travel To Czech Republic (collage + pictures)

In 2014, I went to Czech Republic for the first time. I brought back a few pictures of street art I've found in Praha, walking around its streets for hours. Hunting street art during my travels around the world became a great passion for me those last years. It's pure popular art, but also real democratic art. Street artists don't need to be selected in museums or expensive art galleries, they just need to leave their artistic imprint on the walls, on the buildings, on billboards,... Street art is also democratic from the point of view of the public who admires (or hates with their guts) street art. No need to go to museums, to pay anything to see street art. It's a way to bring art back to the streets, in the city. To make it leave museums walls, to make art less elistic. That's art for the people. You, me, us, they,... And more than anything, it's contextual art : street art feeds on its environnement and plays with it (one of the picture below...I let you guess which one...is contextual art at its purest level).

Then, back home with so many pictures in my camera, I created a collage inspired by Praha. I used the same technic I used for Lisboa and Santiago de Chile : I worked with MS Paint (aka the most basic drawing programme ever). Enjoy!

Vulcano Dios – Mythologies (acrylic)

The Day. The Night. A human figure holding (creating ?) a huge volcano. This painting is about cosmogony, about mythologies. Each culture has its own explanation about the creation and the organisation of the world. Some are very poetic. I definitely love to read ancient civilizations mythologies. Precolombian cultures in particular. For exemple, the Incas believed that Manco Cápac, the legendary founder of the Inca’s dynasty, has been taken out of Titicaca lake by the sun god Inti. The Mayas thought the world was divided in three : the underworld (Xibalba) where dead people went, the earth (flat and square) and the heaven that was the kingdom of the gods. My painting is an symbolistic illustration of a fictional mythology, the human figure representing an imaginary god of volcanoes and fire.

Collages – To make the most out of (nearly) nothing.

Those 4 collages are made with a very simple technic : I scanned drawings of mine and made collages out of them using Paint (aka the most basic drawing program). I love this idea of bricolage, to make the most out of (nearly) nothing. That’s certainly one of the many reasons I love rap : to create masterpieces without much materials…and very often without even knowing how to read music (like many legendary jazzmen by the way). That’s also one of the many reasons I love the French painter Rousseau. He wasn’t technically the best painter ever, but very aware of his limits, he used his mistakes and his limited skills to create something new, something very personal, paintings like no others. That’s my vision of art : to use one’s weakness and mistakes to create something original. To accept imperfection as beeing something very natural, very human.As being a part of life.

African Art (acrylic + watercolor + pen)

I’ve never been to Africa, but this continent keeps calling me in my dreams. I must confess I have a great fascination for Africa. Its cultures, landscapes, history, fauna and flora. Its incredible diversity hardly imaginable for people living in the small Europe. Its huge potentiel very well described in the book „Afrotopia“ by Felwine Sarr. And of course its art which influenced some of the greatest painters, Picasso being the most famous. Here are some african-inluenced paintings and drawings of mine (and I’m not comparing myself to the great spanish painter).

To Be Black In The USA - An History Of Discrimination

Since more than 2 years, the debate on discrimination against black people in the USA is omnipresent in the medias, due to brutality and excesses by the police. It’s like the past some tried to forget is shouting : racism and discrimination are still very alive in the USA. This topic not only has been debated and denounced by medias and political activists, but also by artists. Tarantino’s Django was a revenge of the history against racist bigots. We can also mention the great TV show « Roots » based on the classic Alex Hailey’s novel that narrate the life of Kunta Kinte (an African enslaved by white people and brought to the USA) and its offsprings, or the Oscar-awarded « 12 Years A Slave ». In music also the last years have seen many artists denouncing discrimation and police brutality, the most famous being Kendrick Lamar and it’s already classic album « How to Pimp A Butterfly ».

...and this new video of Mick Jenkins called „Drowning“ (you can find it easily on youtube) that inspired me this article. The video, deeply inspired by « Roots’ » esthetic, starts with those words : « I can’t breathe ». Then we see 2 white man with devilish smiles maintaining a black man on the floor. The reference is clear : it’s about the death of Eric Garner, killed by policemen in 2014. Just after this tragic event, I dedicated a painting to Garner. That’s was my modest way of denouncing discrimination against black people in the USA, and discrimination in general, whatever the target is. I wrote 2 sentences on this painting : „I Can’t Breathe“ and „Strange Fruit“. « Strange Fruit » was a poem against racism written in 1937 by Abel Meerepol, made famous when Billie Holiday and then Nina Simone sang it later. Putting the name of this song/poem and Garner’s last sentence on my painting, I meant : discrimination is unfortunately still alive nowadays and we must denounce it. No matter the context.

Skulls in Mexican art (acrylic + watercolour + pen + collages)

Since I was a child, I’ve been fascinated by skulls. I know it may sounds a bit gloomy and I personnaly don’t know where does this fascination comes from…but it is the way it is. In 2009, I left Europe for the first time to visit very dear friends in Mexico. What surprises me the most was the omnipresence of art. Not only in museums, not only elitist art. But also popular and very colourful art in the streets, on the walls, in the shops, the bars and the restaurants. Popular art in its purest form. That was a big revelation for me. Democratic art everybody can admire for free in its everyday life. That’s the reason I love street art. But let’s go back to skulls. Skulls are very present in Mexican culture, deeply rooted in pre-colombian believes mixed with catholic religion. Everybody know the famous « el Día de muertos », but skulls are omnipresent in Mexican art also. However, they generaly don’t give you a bad feeling when you see them, because they are used in very colourful pieces of art. I love this idea of bringing the light out of darkness. So maybe my fascination for skulls ain’t so gloomy finaly.

Acrylic painting

Collages

Watercolor painting + black pen

Pen

Santiago de Chile, a city where past and future dance together (collages)

As I did with Lisboa, I used picture I took in Santiago de Chile to make collages. They try to give the spectators an overview of Chilean capital architecture. When we arrive in this fascinating city, we feel like we’ve found a part of the USA lost in South America. The skyscrapers gives us this first impression. Then, we got to know it better. Its people, its pastel de choclo, its cumbia, its „Chilean languague“ so hard to understand and so rich of slang words, its immortal poet Neruda, …  The Andes in the background remind us we are in South America. Then we see catholic statues and churches, quite a lot. Another evidence that we are definitely in Latin America. But more than everything, Santiago de Chile is a city where historical buildings dance in harmony with futuristic one. 

Plaza de Armas

Cadillac Church

Dawntown

Mycarizwatchinya

Newizold

Oldiznew

Turfu

French Fries Skies

Militantes

The Body Is Communicating (black pen + coloured pencil)

The Body Is Communicating. Two exemples (among many others) of the way body parts are used to communicate emotions or ideas. The first one is a "mexican art influenced" fist. The second one, a mouth inspired by North American Indian cultures. I let you decide the emotions/ideas these 2 drawings are expressing, considering my piece of art don't belong to me anymore since the spectator is looking at them.

Aztec

Tribal Ink

Lisboa 2012 (collages)

On the menu today : a travel to Lisboa with a few collages I created using pictures I took during my trip to Portugal in 2012. Those collages aim to depict a multi-angle portrait of 21th century Lisboa, trying to capturate the complexity of a modern cosmopolitan city. The remaining parts of the glorious past of the portuguese capital, but also the melancholic feeling created by the effects of the 2008’s economic crisis, the omnipresence of very creative street art on the walls, the multicultural nature of the metropole and its very close tie with the rest of the world represented by its proximity with the ocean.

Street Horsez

Street Scriptures

Street Treez

Zumains

Lisboa Skies I

Lisboa Skies II

Prisoner Of Thoughts

Windows Pastel

1%

Estas Ruas

An Ode To Travels