While preparing for my solo exhibition in Menaggio, I am reflecting on the many years of travel and the journey that led me to my passion for photography which dates back to the 1980s when my American ex-husband, also a photographer, offered me my first 35mm camera as a birthday gift. My passion for photography grew even more when my marriage ended in 1982, which was a defining moment in my life while moving back to Canada from Antwerp, Belgium. My heart is like a closet lined with shelves of memories; art has healing power, and I can attest to that to overcome such pain. Creativity brings that lightness of being to overcome life's struggles, a butterfly effect of freedom.
The second trigger to nurture my passion for photography was while I worked in the creative department of an advertising agency in Montreal while attending the Dawson Institute of Photography. However commercial photography did not nurture my desire for more freedom in my artistic initiative. Hence, I moved toward the classic black & white photography that I developed in my own lab and started showing it in exhibitions. My first exhibition took place after a trip to Cuba in 2000 for which I captured images to evoke a sense of joy from its people, regardless of their material conditions.
Today my rebel spirit with a cause delves into the artistic vision creating works to bring those fluid moments in nature, not reproducing reality but coaxing a dreamy reality. I fuse images of the natural world and play with the colours while adding oil paint on my canvases, as the process of my technique ''Pintography'' comes into being, highlighting the painterly aspect of my imagery. Oscar Wilde wrote: ''No great artist ever sees things as they really are. If he did, he would cease to be an artist.'' Come into my world of fantasy where to love art is to love nature in Menaggio, Lake Como from 8 until 20 of August 2023.
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