CH.89: If you were to categorize or describe the style of your artwork, what would it be and why?
AB: Through comics strips and graphic illustration, I tell stories of meetings and encounters, where bodies and sensitivity show up and face one another. I love to take a look at intimacy. I dwell on daily situations for their weirdness. What’s the most comfortable sometimes is also the deeper, the more secret and disturbing. Lines cannot reach these feelings of intensity. I try to fill these gaps with surrealistic colors.
CH.89: Where do you draw your inspiration from?
AB: From my mother’s smile.
CH.89: Can you talk a little bit about what your creative thought process is like when starting a new project/ piece of artwork?
AB: It starts off with something that tickles me. The more this tickle bothers me, the more she becomes a task . Lay it down, put it on paper, and get it out of my head so I can relax.
CH.89: Is there anything in particular that you would want people to take from your artwork?
AB: To deconstruct sights / to represent plurality / the multiplicity of insights.
AB: To bring another point of view, is to open yourself to different insights. I like to give the opportunity to live something with someone else’s eyes.
CH.89: Can you talk a little bit about your lifestyle as an artist and what that is like?
AB: If I spend a day without drawing, I’m unbearable to everyone. As if I’m frustrated with something. I often oscillate between being sociable , or locking myself down in the farthest house on the mountain to work quietly.
AB: A common day of mine usually involves eating healthy food, and doing a lot of sport because my back often hurts. I then draw and think, and draw again… until I can’t take it anymore and feel that I’ve got enough tasks done. It can keep me up for a huge part of the night sometimes.
CH.89: When starting out an artistic task, do you think it is better to have a particular direction/set plan guiding your way? Or, is it better to act on impulse and go from there?
AB: I work mainly from insights and flashes. Most of my ideas come to me while taking a shower.It’s like I feel more legitimate there to consider my own ideas good enough.
CH.89: What is one major lesson you’ve learned as an artist thus far?
AB: To fail is not the end of everything. No one has the right to judge. Failures aren’t there to punish you for not being good enough, they give you a better insight on what in your work can improve. In the end, failure has more to teach you than success. Next time, I’ll fail better.
CH.89: Do you regard personal style & taste to be of highest importance?
AB: Yes. I’m a fashion victim.
CH.89: What do you consider to be the hardest thing about being an artist?
AB: The government’s lack of consideration, our social status has really few benefits.
CH.89: What is one thing you love about being an artist?
AB: The right to be 8 years old for the rest of my life. This childish way of looking at the world isn’t ok for everyone. As an artist, it’s a strength, and gives me the right to be like that.
CH.89: Is there anyone in particular, any artist’s that inspire you in any way?
AB: Siouxsie Sioux
CH.89: What do you think of technology in terms of being a useful tool for artists today?
AB: It is something that can be useful, and something that can get in the way as well. It’s very useful to be able to communicate about your work, but you can also lose a lot of time. As a working tool, technology, «modernity» is no future. In fact, it isn’t the present neither. The present is already post-modern. You can easily loose sense of what you mean in your artwork if you stay stuck to technicality.
CH.89: Do you think being an artist allows you to view the world differently from those who don’t follow creative paths?
AB: I believe it’s too much of an elitism not to consider people’s thoughts/perceptions just because they did not follow a creative path. I think we’re all artists. In a way.
CH.89: Do you enjoy traveling? If so, do you have a favorite city?
AB: I’m really feeling good at home. I don’t really like cities, my favorite is just mine, Marseille.
CH.89: Do you have a favorite author or book?
AB: Literature: Joyce Carol Oates with Les Chutes, and Gang de Filles, Carole Fives for Térébenthine, I read it recently, and decided to read it again. I would absolutely recommend it to every woman in art school or in artistic networks! It has literally put me on fire, she talks about what space we give to women in the art business, it allowed me to put words on several frustrations I did not identify with thus far.
AB: Comic wise: Moi ce que j’aime c’est les monstres d’Emil Ferris. Obviously!
CH.89: Any future goals or plans for your artwork?
AB: To finish everything I start. Cool down my self-mastery, and let go.
CH.89: What does being an artist mean to you?
AB: If society would be a living body, I would be an antibody. My goal is to keep the body (and the social body) strong and wellbeing.
CH.89: What’s the last song you listened to?
AB: “I’m Still Wearing His Jacket” by Molly Nilsson from her album Follow the Light.
AB: The most listened song on some platformìdontwannaname in 2020 is “Ti Ricordi Di Me” by Erasmus, from the movie Belgica.
CH.89: Any last words on the aesthetic of your artwork?
AB: Yes! Please take a look at my friend’s works, they’re all fabulous:
Lucile Ourvonki (@kumoona), Maël escot (@mael_escot), Chloé Kaemmerer (@chloekaemmerer), Juliette Defrance (@defrancejuliette), Hilal Can (@hilalcan.studio), Emese Pap (@feli_xiksz), Gwen Descamps (@gwenn_descamps), Sarah-louise Barbett (@sarahlouisebarbett), Irene Tardif (@irenetardif) et @lazarus.lazare
AB: For me, it’s really good to know they exist!
CHAPTER89 