Hello Dear Camille Theodet. Thank you for giving us the chance to Interview with you. Our first question is how the “Covid-19” affects your art and what is your expectation for the year ahead of us?

The Covid-19 outbreak was of course touching me as much as everyone else, but I have simply learned to live with it. The fact that I had, and still have to do home office in Berlin with my side job, changed the way I am also creating and approaching art. Simply, I am not spending so much time in the public transports anymore, and can focus way more easily on my own work. Since my work studio is also my living place, I don’t have as much distractions as before and I actually feel way more into what I am currently doing, and I am really producing a lot lately.
For the coming year, I just want to produce as much as I can, be happy with what I do, and of course, show as much as possible my work in galleries.



What is your creative process like? How has your style changed over the years?

Since my work is based on art history paintings, I always start by just looking at a lot of art. Most of the time, the idea comes almost instantly when I see one painting: I imagine the story, what it makes me think about, if it makes me laugh. I then do sometimes some very simple sketches, to give me a general idea of where I am going. Then, I just start the painting itself.
I was before really putting a lot of work in preliminary sketches, which I don’t do that much anymore, or in a very simple way. I am trying to give more space for my instinct, and do something only if I really feel it good in my guts.
 
 

You like to use masks on your works and in your words this is to “show what is deep inside the human that had to be hidden before”. Can you tell our readers how did you come up with the idea and about your inspiration?

The inspiration comes mostly from the BDSM world. Living in Berlin, BDSM is a developped culture, as much privately as in the underground and club culture. This is something that fascinates me, as much for the aesthetic point of view as for the psychological.
Wear a mask, especially a fetish one, is made to, in my opinion, not only “hide” your face, but give you a new identity: the one that you do not show in public, in your everyday life. This lifestyle is used to show what is deep inside you, what you like really deep inside you. There are a lot of codes in this universe, and a first glance at one BDSM aesthetic can give you a lot of informations about a person, informations that can be very sensitive, at the same time extremely strong and fragile.
In my work, I am using this aesthetic to show something else, that I could imagine is hidden inside this person who was portraited. At the time the painting was made, the main purpose was to show someone in the best way possible, politically correct, that can please anyone. My main purpose is to break that down, in a way that simply show them as it would never have been back then, by mixing the codes of the time and my own of today.



What was the most challenging project that you worked on?

I am always trying to push myself as much as I can everytime I start a new painting. I guess each painting is a challenge in itself, as I am extremely perfectionist. Therefore, the struggle never ends!
Otherwise, I have to say that every new vernissage I participate is also a real challenge, but an interesting one, that I can’t wait to continue!



You have been to a school of special effects make-up. Can you tell us what lead you into painting and drawing instead of other mediums?

Actually, it is thanks to this make-up school that I have discovered the airbrush (and I am still using the same from back then today!”). However, I have done before fine art school, and drawing and painting has always been my prefered mediums. I guess I just could not fight that, like a natural instinct.



What has been your greatest artistic success?

Every time I am invited to a show is a real success to me. Of course, it is even better when I sell!
My own personal success is also when I can paint what I really want, and feel really happy about it, which is something really hard to achieve for me.
 

 
What advice would you give to your younger self?

Never stop to work, trust in yourself, and believe in your art.



Anything else you would like to mention or add for the readers?

Continue to watch art, and don’t hesitate to support the artists your like! We all really need it, and its thanks to art lovers that we can do what we love and amaze people.
 

Thank you for your time!


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