1. Where were you born and where are you from ?

I was born in Briançon, a small town in the french alps, surrounded by the mountains. I spent most of my childhood and teenage years in this environment and left when I finished high school to study in different places.

2. What is your first memory connected to the art world ?

I grew up in a family who made me connect very early with art and creation. First, my grandmother was an art teacher and kept painting her whole life and my aunt is a painter as well. Additionnally, from early childhood my parents took us to theatre shows and music festivals and travelled with us every year to big cities where we visited major art exhibitions.

3. Have you always worked in the art/design field ?

Although I pursued higher education in a completely different field I couldn’t envision spending most of my time behind a computer. I was craving for making things with my hands and took the plunge as soon as I was done with university.

4. What led you to the design creation ?

I came to design creation through cabinet-making. Working with wood made me realize the sensuality and poetry of this material as well as the  emotional power of objects.

5. How would you describe your creative process and it influences ?

My aesthetics is nurtured by the random effects of natural phenomenons such as erosion and the natural wear of materials exposed to the elements. I  also like to explore the poetry that lies in the slight imbalance and irregularities provided by the human eye and gestures.  In my creative process, design and manufacturing are deeply intertwined phases.  Even if I sometimes draw very precise things beforehand, working at the bench is a decisive step. The grain of the wood and its specific shades, the way it reacts when you start working, all these elements influence the final direction of a project. I also like to start from what I have at hand to create and develop new ideas. I discovered that constraints can be a great source of creativity, and this approach allows me to extend the life of the trees in my workshop, trying to value even the smallest scraps.

6. Could you describe a typical day of your work ?

I spend most of my time in the studio, either working at the bench, drawing or trying to come up with  technical solution to make my ideas come true.

7. Why did you choose the specific materials you work with ?

Working with wood has been the most obvious introduction to crafting objects. I have seen my dad making wooden furniture for our house all along my childhood, which gave me a sense that working with wood was something accessible. Then, I discovered the poetry of this material. When talking about trees from a scientific point of view, we use words like « population » or « individuals » . It means that it is impossible to find two identical trees. Each one possesses its own character, its own beauty.

8. What are the technical particularities of your creations ?

I am working primarily with solid wood that I source locally and I like to build everything myself. I work mostly with asymmetrical, organic shapes that result from freehand drawings and avoid using jigs and gauges as much as possible. I try to let the singularity of each piece of wood dictate the final shape, thus ensuring never to make anything identical to a previous production. I also like to retort to contrasting textures, colors and treatments that both highlight and alter the qualities of wood to act like a trompe l’oeil, so that the viewers are led to question their senses and to wonder about the nature and the unity of the material used.

9. What advices could you give to beginning artists who would like to create sculptural design works ?

Trust yourself and do what you really want to do. Try things when you want to, don’t be scared to fail.

10. If your works had to belong to a design movement, in which one would you define it ?

This is a hard one, I wish you could tell me!

11. What designers have influenced you ?

I find a lot of inspiration in the way artist like JB Blunk managed to make their personal lives and professional practices one whole coherent thing.

12. What contemporary designers do you appreciate ?

Max Lamb or Valentin Loellman for instance.

13. What contemporary artists (in any kind of art) have you been inspired by ?

Brancusi, Sheila Hicks, Anni Albers, Noguchi, painter Caroline Forest and many many others.

14. If you had to summarize your creations in one word or sentence, what would it be ?

Objects of emotions.

Proust Questionnaire with very short answers (one or a few words) :
(The Proust Questionnaire is a set of questions answered by the French writer Marcel Proust. Other historical figures who have answered confession albums are Oscar Wilde, Karl Marx, Arthur Conan Doyle, Stéphane Mallarmé, Paul Cézanne…)