No one really makes a portrait of somebody else. Every portrait is a self-portrait. By observing the other, the painter sees himself and the character in the portrait is the one of the painters. Who does not see in a portrait neither the painter nor the portraited one, sees what he finds of the two in himself, in his psychological and cultural memory. The way of building reveals the nature of the builder. It reveals his compulsivity, the speed of his execution, the patterns of the process. The portraited is a mirror in which one sees what is needed in his quest for his own identity. I make portrait but also landscapes using the most different materials: pencils, bullets, shoelaces, neckties, books, plastic waste, x-rays, electrical wires, guitar chords etc.. and I am going to do more with materials that I have not explored yet. Every material has a symbolic and conceptual weight. It is a trait of the portrait which reveals/dissimulates a character. I like experimenting with new materials and media, and I have always loved pencils in particular. “Pencilism” is an installation built entirely out of color pencils, a medium that I connected with at an early age. A pencil is a magic wand. It brings to life the sun, the garden, the house and the family. From it, a dove, a rabbit and endless handkerchiefs are revealed. There is a picture of yourself in every bloom of every flower you draw. In every drawing, you play hide and seek with your childhood, memories and secrets. You embrace your awkwardness of love and the fear of it. You search your soul, your senses and feelings. With each drawing, the pencil gets smaller. I want it all: the pencils and the drawings. I want all the pencils with all their images. I will be present by my absence; this is my magic word. My years of training as a painter translated to my adeptness as a draughtsman in this collage method. With an embroidery-like technique and almost compulsive craftsmanship I create «paintings». From a distance or even in photographs, the assemblages appear to be gestural paintings. Up close, one can see the hundreds of colored pencils that are carefully cut and arranged, with all the techniques that a painter would use to stroke the pigment on canvas.

I transform objects from their utilitarian purposes to create beautiful sculptures and paintings. My art engages, surprises and inspires its viewers, and moves others to reflect and to re-think the boundaries of artistic media, while creating an unforgettable experience for people of all ages. I create exquisitely made objects that are assemblages of items such as bullet shells, cut up pieces of color pencils, colored shoelaces and pins, books, electrical wires, ties, plastic waste, suitcases, bicycle tires, screws. surgical instruments, guitar chords, coins, just to name a few. My sculptures are not sculpted but constructed and weaved, in curious and unpredictable, repetitive, and almost compulsive ways. The creation of the sculptures is a labor-intensive process, requiring compulsive repetition as the disparate elements are weaved together to form a whole. I like the idea of leaving my materials visible as a testimony of the process and how much work I put into it. By connecting objects in such fresh ways, I reflect on Nature’s pivotal presence and in the process, I go full circle and give back to Nature what was taken from her: as trees are turned into books, I turn books into trees, leather shoes into animals, while the use of bullets and cartridges to bring a fox or a rabbit back to life might illustrate dramatically the brutal annihilation of wildlife all around our planet. The media that I use may sometimes conceptually inspire philosophical debate (for instance the role of firearms in our society or the importance of the conservation of the environment) but whatever the interpretation of my work, I want the imagery of my experience to resonate with the viewer. My commitment is to beauty. I do not intend my work to be perceived in an intellectual way. Nor do I believe in political approaches through art. For me, it is a question of creating an aesthetic and poetic image that remains in memory; It’s about transmitting a feeling, of generating an emotion and causing a smile. I give my pieces humorous names, using simple wordplay and recycling popular metaphors to affirm their basic positivity. As a recurrent intention in my work, I encourage the viewer to discover, beyond the sole function of an object, an underlying symbolic and aesthetic reality where life overcomes death and beauty supplants destruction. Humor, beauty, and love are essentially what remain the memory of the viewer. The use of each new object is a challenge. It requires inventing and developing an appropriate and essentially artisanal technique in its manufacture.