The Calling of the Artist

L’artiste c’est celui qui donne un son, une forme, des couleurs, des mots et des saveurs à sa vie intérieure.

En chacun réside une vie intérieure qui prend forme dans nos rêves, nos créations, nos échanges avec les autres. C’est notre jardin secret, notre univers.

Nos sociétés actuelles ne nous accordent pas toujours la possibilité de partager ce qui pourrait enfin nous rapprocher les uns des autres. 

Il nous faut nous élever par delà les émotions collectives qui nous pousseraient à ne pas partager nos singularités et à créer des murs là où nous devrions créer du lien. 

Il nous faut toujours œuvrer pour cultiver une authenticité du lien, ce qui nous rapproche les uns des autres. 

« Le monde est ma provocation » disait Bachelard -la réalité me provoque et je provoque aussi cette réalité à travers mes idées et ma créativité consciente.

Je choisis délibérément de ne pas emprunter la route conventionnelle, la ligne droite, mais de prendre des chemins transversaux qui offrent des possibilités auxquels nous n’aurions pas été exposé autrement.

Nous avons toujours le choix d’être regis par les structures et d’être régisseur, ou plutôt acteur et créateur du mouvement de celles ci.

Comme le décorum de la ville et des structures qui le constitue, on oublie souvent les espaces qui existent entre ces bâtiments: L’entre deux, le monde de tous les possibles.

Tout est perméable et prêt à être traversé, comme chacun, on est toujours et sans cesse en train de se recréer au gré des structures qui l’entoure, qu’il côtoie.

Agissons tel un artiste, redonnons du sens à ces structures symboliques, matériels, institutionnels.

La voix créatrice, la vie intérieure de chacun doit se faire entendre, voir et ressentir.

Nous sommes chacun des microcosmes dans un univers où nous sommes tous liés, en interaction avec chacun.

La manière d’interagir relève à chacun de manière individuelle.

Osons créer. 

By A.C

Publicités

People, People, People

Started the morning reading Brené Brown last book called
« Dare to Lead » .

A dear friend took the picture of the cover and said « you should read this »
nothing more.

As I turned the pages, I couldn’t help but connect and relate to what was written about people, vulnerability and how do you make the most out of the relationships you create.

Vulnerability has always been to me a trait of character that doesn’t refer to being weak or lost but rather an attitude of humbleness and a capability to show up even when yourself , you don’t know the answer.

Trust and Respect should be at the core of any relationship whether it’s work related, friendship, loved ones.
We are able to show these values in our behaviors and small gestures.

When you get in a certain « level » in your career, in your life, you also need to know how to come down of the mountain
(are you really at the peak?)
because that’s where all answers can be found: amongst the people.

You ask a true leader where we are going with the company, he’ll tell you I don’t know but we’ll get where we need to be if you are willing to hop on the journey.

It often is hard for anyone to find balance between emotions and rational thinking~ it’s normal as human beings we sometime feel the need to make sense of our decisions, be very rational about them without enabling emotions and intuition to find their place. This stems from a lack of security and confidence in our capacity to change the way things can be done. You make the difference, you have to trust yourself.

Vulnerability helps us bridge both, we know we have something to achieve and yet we don’t have the answers or solutions to drive it to where it should be. Step into the world with humbleness and trust ( most and foremost in yourself) knowing you’ll get the answers somehow.
You are in the unknown and we all are:

we are just People, People, People.

-by A.C

This is America

We stopped in Butte yesterday.

Small American town in Montana, once called the Richest Hill on Earth.

Didn’t have much expectation ~ except maybe going after Bourdain’s footstep when he stopped in 2015 with his « no reservations » crew.

I didn’t like it nor did I detest it, it’s a town with lots of history: Mining history & Copper.

We walked a bit around the city center which is concentrated in a few blocks perimeter. It felt like a ghost town almost, with remains of past highlights and an era long past.

We walked along with a strange feeling of uneasiness.

33 525 inhabitants, 35 churches, 55 bars, 154 years and one of the biggest producers of Copper in the world.

‘Twas Manifest Destiny.

(…) to be dis-continued

-By A.C

 

 

 

 

Présence.

Présence : 

Etat d’alignement total avec ce qui est. C’est un état de conscience pur ou nous sommes à la fois observateurs et expérimentateur, celui qui fait l’expérience de la vie et celui qui l’observe. 

J’aime écrire, faire de la photo tout comme celui qui aime chanter, danser, raconter des histoires. Toutes ces choses nous permettent de mettre en mouvement et d’exprimer des émotions cachées. 

Je pense souvent à la notion de présence. La présence ça ne signifie pas forcément être là au sens physique du terme mais c’est de se sentir en osmose avec ce/ceux qui nous entourent. Se sentir ancré dans l’instant qui nous touche et qui nous porte vers de nouveaux horizons. 

Notre présence, il nous faut d’avantage la respecter, se l’approprier aussi. Nous ne sommes pas que des êtres réceptifs et aériens, il nous faut être ancrer, nous sentir ancrer par une autre présence. 

La présence de l’autre est inévitablement nécessaire pour avancer soi-même.  

Quoi qu’il arrive nous avançons à mesure du temps qui passe, l’important c’est de se sentir transformé par les présences que nous côtoyons et que nous avons côtoyé. 

-A.C

« Seul le présent est, l’avant et l’après ne sont pas ; mais le présent concret est le résultat du passé et il est plein de l’avenir. Le Présent véritable est, par conséquent, l’éternité. » M.Heidegger

The state of Wandering

“Enjoy all the little moments and be in the present”~ we dwell the past and fear the future and somehow we forget the power of the present.

This picture was taken back in 2013, in one of the mission churches of San Francisco. I remember cruising and “climbing” those streets in search of the things we don’t see if we don’t take the time to wander. At that time, I was exploring the city with a desire to learn more about the people, it’s history and the stories that were hidden behind walls.

I don’t recall intentionally being in the present moment but I know I was: the state of wandering is one in which we don’t have expectations nor routes we wish to follow, it’s only your intuition guiding you places you are called to go.

5 years later, I realize how important this state of Being is. Change in your life, unexpected events, stress: all of these things take a big space in your mind and take a toll on your well being. It’s hard to let go but setting our intentions to go fourth and once in a while be in the state of wandering , helps us get closer to our own self, to others.

We come to realize that there’s no greater sentiment, no matter how old you are, than amazement: surprising ourselves and others surprising us in ways that allow us to conceive new possibilities to engage in our own lives.

Long story short, today, tomorrow or the next, I invite you to go into this state of wander: take a different route to go to point A to B ( maybe you’ll end up to point D), engage the conversation with saxo player who’s performing at the corner of the park you live by, take your camera and go on an adventure or bring your notebook, take the ferry and write in motion of your boat ride and its people on board. The possibilities are endless, just be in the moment and set your intentions that will carry you beyond the limits you have set to yourself in the first place…

Special thank you to the human that reminds me to seize the moment when I forget.

by A.C

A World of Strangers.

« (…)Although, some like the disruption in that routine as we see a possibility to expend our perspective and our existence, this experience is like a entire new sensation and we might as well embrace it fully and deeply, engage in the moment without holding on. This person became a passerby, we spent time together , talking about Paris, about our love for Hemingway, drinking, eating, even went to a musical without intent. I lived this parenthesis without expectations and enjoyed the sensation that we were just two strangers sharing a time that was only ours, his and mine, we maybe did it in symbiosis at times but we were also living it for ourselves.

Indeed we are all strangers to one another, to others, to our family, to our friends and most of all, to ourselves.

Books won’t give us answers to tell us who we are or who we should be but they enlighten our path to the search of this being, this essence we have that makes us as one with the rest. Being a stranger is nothing to be afraid of, we all have our differences, our stories and our challenges but we have the capacity to create, to overcome adversity by creating bridges when others see obstacles and barriers. A bridge can take as much as a day or an entire life but that effort, that powerful love for the stranger you are and that we all are will make it worth it. Going out of what we know is terrifying, we will want to back up, to run  but we will close our eyes, breathe and feel deeply what our hearts tell us to do and we will carry on because we don’t know and we might never know, but we have to be at peace with the fact our life is led by uncertainty.

We are a world of strangers. »

By A.C

Ateliers Bonhomme, Paris June 2018, By A.C. Sony A6000

 

 

Monument Persona, Rue Faubourg Saint Honore, Paris 2018, By A.C. sony A6000

 

 

13:08, Paris, June 2018, By A.C. Sony A6000

 

Le jeu dans le « je »

 

« I don’t feel that it is necessary to know exactly what I am. The main interest in life and work is to become someone else that you were not in the beginning. If you knew when you began a book what you would say at the end, do you think that you would have the courage to write it? What is true for writing and for a love relationship is true also for life. The game is worthwhile insofar as we don’t know what will be the end. »

Michel Foucault- interview, 1982

What I am is not the question. If we keep asking ourselves the question we never act, we never live , we never exist.

Like a book, if you knew the end even before opening it, you wouldn’t read it. We don’t know the end that’s why it’s worth living every moment at its fullest: whether it’s through contemplation, silence, actions , conversations or exercise of the mind, we should always root ourselves in that precise moment. I am, isn’t always a stable and rational being, we are not just one but many.

We are many selves and our happiness resides in recognizing the multiple beings we can be. Don’t seek always to know the answer or The End, enjoy the ride and take part in it. Don’t live for The End but for the journey, the people you love, you meet, the stories that need to be told, heard. Live fully.