YOKOGAGA: Interview Cicada Wheels

http://www.cicadawheels.com/inspiration/marie-pierre-brunel/

posted by NICOLETTA ROLLA March 3, 2018

Levitation édition @476

What is your first memory related to art ?

A box of Crayola that melted in the sun, it was a pretty beautifull mess.

Who or what made you become an artist?

I grew up in a small city where everyone wanted to have regular jobs. I didn’t know anything about art, but it felt like a job with a lot of freedom. I wanted to work for myself and be independent.

Candomblé (détail) acrylic painting on paper – @yokogaga

Which artists of the past have influenced your artistic vision?

At the beginning I was in a school to become a comic artist, so i looked up a lot of drawings from Robert Crumb, Ludovic Debeurme, Mattoti, David B, Charles Berberian, Julie Doucet, Shcuitens or Roland Topor.

Then I went to study painting at the Fine Arts School of Marseille and spend my time in the library to look at classical artists like Dürer, Goya, Bosch, Brueguel.

Bird mask acrylic painting on paper – @yokogaga

Which contemporary artists do you admire?

Today it’s more about contemporary art painters like Marc Desgranchamps, Peter Doig, Luc Tuymans, Claire Tabouret, Damien Cadio, Maël Nozahic, but I also admire a lot of underground artists and art brut.

What about your artistic process? What techniques and mediums do you use?

I’m always looking for some old books, encyclopedia, engravings, advertisement from the 50’s, that i find in second hand stores or flea markets. Then, I use all of this material to make collage and create surreal images or characters.

I use a lot of different mediums : drawing with Indian ink, painting (acrylic), printing techniques like screenprinting, linocut, metal engraving (all of the above together). In the end I rarely use my computer, it’s mostly traditional tools.

I also knit and make wax sculptures but i haven’t figured out how to integrate them in my work yet.

Who are the protagonists of your works?And what stories do you tell?

Children in costume, women and men from an another time period, demons and monsters, animals and chamans.

They are all related to human beings, but they could come from a bizarre reallity where there is always something sketchy or uncanny.

I try to bring up something from old folkoric tales or ancient ways that don’t realy fit anymore in the modern society. I’m trying to talk about forgotten traditions or fears.

A lot of it are realated to the childhood when your imagination runs wild.

ph Antoine Jouguet – @yokogaga

Have you an artistic mania or obssession?

I drew and painted a lot of skulls.

Graphically they are very interesting to represent, but also because they have a strong meaning, that can be dreadfull or funny like in the Mexican culture.

For me, it also relates to an X-ray I had of my head when I was little girl. I discovered what was underneath our skin. It did’nt fright me at all, I found it was beautifull, nature always is.

Morales - Atelier Césure

@yokogaga

Music, writing, cinema, do they influence your art?

I always listen to music when I’m painting (and not painting), that’s another obsession.

My favorite writers are Beckett, Orwell, Philip K. Dick and Ray Bradbury.

I like to watch old black and white movies like Bergman’s. But I also have a Netflix account and watch a lot of tv series…

Peggy, Lithography – @yokogaga

When you are not inspired, what do you do?

I visit museums and galleries or buy new books.

What is the aspect of your personality that is stronger in your works?

Creative.

What are your current projects?

I’m working on a big drawing with blue color pencils right now. I also have to make a huge painting (2,5m x 4m) for a show in May.

I’m also getting started with tattooing in my studio at 6b.

@scpc

Are you involved in any upcoming shows, events, collabs?

I have to finish two illustration books with french editors Culture commune and White Rabbit prod and I have some groups shows later this year.

I also have a collective called Super Coherent Printing company, we make fanzines on the spot with printers, screenprint, and monotype. We’re going to a festival in Belgium called Papier Carbone in February.