SPOTLIGHT CERAMIC ARTIST SOLENNE BELLOIR
We are very excited to present today’s interview with ceramic artist Solenne Belloir who has been working with clay only for three years creating masterful pieces, and who with two friends have recently finished a new studio in Paris called « La Souterraine », which means « The Underground ».
Tell us about your greatest inspirations or influences?
I admire many ceramic universes and somehow lots of them have influenced my work, but I’m mostly inspired by what I see everyday in the streets of Paris. Mostly pipes and chimneys but also lots of industrials facilities, I’m a huge fan of Hilla & Bernd Becher work, notably their « Basic Forms » book which helped me with my water-tower observation and fascination with my first sculpture series.
On top of that I’m fascinated by nature and plants, I spend lots of time observing them not to recreate them but to make pieces that will work in harmony with plants.
Tell us a bit about your creative process?
I’m always thinking about forms in my head, when I need to take action and make a piece, I’ll sketch it very roughly, then I think about the order in which I should do things and I just go for it.
At the end of the day, if I don’t like it I break it down and recycle it.
In the coming months I’m going to make pieces that I’ve never made before but can’t wait to try them out, I’ve been quite busy doing the same pieces over and over again for retailers or showcase and I know I'm lucky for that, but I’m seeing things differently now and my aim is to do more unique pieces and less series.
How has the pandemic affected your creativity and how do you see the world changing?
I had the chance to be able to continue working during the pandemic so it didn't affect my creativity much.
As for the world to be honest, one day I am full of the will to live, courage and hope, on the other I am appalled by what is happening and I feel useless and powerless.
I try to be conscious of how we live and what I can do to make a change even if it’s a small one. One good thing that pandemic did for me is to make me realise that I didn’t want to do everything alone as I used to think, any kind of success is meaningless if not shared with the people we love.
Who do you consider to be an icon of our time?
It’s a difficult question and after some thinking, two names came to my head several times : Greta Thunberg and Assa Traore, they are both fighting so hard for two different causes that are so important : ecology and anti-racism. I have a huge admiration for them because they’re sacrificing their life for a greater cause, how many of us can say the same ?
What does wellbeing mean to you, and what do you practice?
Wellbeing to me means doing what I please with my time.
Being able to stop working when I don't feel like it, to take a break in the countryside, to spend time with people I love, or on the contrary, decide to do mash a lot of work during a period of time without having to justify myself to anyone, in short wellbeing to me is being my own boss, which means freedom.