The Automatic Artist

How I started I was born with dwarfism and stayed in the hospital for treatments until I was 15. Growing up, the only activity I could indulge in was drawing and I often collected my little art pieces to put together on a large canvas. I studied art, but my style didn’t really take shape until my mid-20s. One night when I was 24, I did 100 paintings on one subject. When I was done, I mixed the variations to compose a whole new picture. That’s how I started painting the way I do today.

My doodles become art Everywhere I go, I capture images in my mind and they flow into one when I paint. I get my ideas from having no idea. It’s like automatic writing (a process of forming messages with an unconscious flow of words and images, derived from the Surrealist movement), where pictures pop up in my head and are translated onto canvas. They become my own vocabulary.

My Singapore stint Art has taken me across Europe, the US, Hong Kong, China and Vietnam. I spent two days here creating a couple of murals for Mimolette restaurant/bar. I included rabbits everywhere because of the owner’s great love for the animal. There are also drawings of wine glasses, food and music, to represent Mimolette, as well as elements from my life, like a train from my suburb, Vincennes.

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