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                   It's perhaps the most difficult part - considering the huge amount of work done - to present the project, the work of art, the processes, the questioning, the crossing of the underworld... and this imperious necessity of creation and art. This long-term project is a tribute to both women and nature. From a dreamlike, poetic perspective, I wanted to address the resistant humanism and the spirituality needed in those times darkened from time to time by the violators of our rights and freedoms.

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Introduction:

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                  I'd like to start by explaining how Driftwood Beach changed the course of my life. While traveling along the coasts of Florida and Georgia, I observed coastlines and islands, as I like to do when taking my time. I fell in love with driftwood, its looks, postures, textures and colors on beaches that are, to say the least, striking. I was, am and will remain profoundly inspired by this Driftwood Beach littered with natural sculptures, haunted by old spirits. There are certainly thousands of magical places on our planet, and this "tree boneyard" is surely one of them, singled out by the presence of such gems as oaks (some over half a millennium old, such as Quercus Virginiana, commonly known as live oaks), pines and palms. No wonder it's a photographer's paradise or/and a wedding destination (photographers needed). Even less surprising that Jekyll Island features in the explorer's guide to the world's hidden wonders by Atlas Obscura.

                   As I began to observe these trees - burnt and bleached by the sun's rays, still standing after the passage of storms and hurricanes, wiping out those pouring rains and perpetuating their reign under Georgia's blazing sun - the idea of resilience naturally came into play. Overcoming hardship to keep on living, that's the example set to me by the inhabitants of this beach (and its history: see the "Idyll with Jekyll" page). My reflection is based on this observation, from which flows the other idea of dialogue and rhetoric between life and death.

                 It's a heartfelt, long-term project that has grown over a period of seven years (2015-2022). On this Olympian beach, I answered the call of poetry by photographing, not without a certain ardor, what inspired me and would give birth to this story and parable. If Driftwood Lady of Jekyll Island is first and foremost a poetic work, it's thanks to the inspiration found in this place, which I see as a theater that my imagination has seized upon. The mysterious dimension of this natural space propelled me towards that supreme state where the soul loves to meet the spirit of things and rediscover the senses. Experiencing "poesis", by the very act of creating, I rediscovered the verve that makes my inner self dance, just as only this young woman made me dance before the wonders of this magical beach. Yes, it's a tribute to the women who are fighting to defend and advance their rights and freedoms in this still too rigid and patriarchal world. I'm an advocate of equal opportunities for men and women, social and cultural diversity, and professional parity. Women remain a profound inspiration, invoking total respect, essential truth, love to the point of devotion. Women give birth, women give life, "basic" fact nor to forget neither neglict. I need and want to hear women's sensitivity and intelligence, just as I like to hear blues women sing and play with more gentleness and delicacy, or rage and despair...

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Body of the creation:

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First of all, it's a personal and spiritual experience with this surviving oak tree, the one I call my "Tree of Life". A little background: 

I'm walking and following my friend John Hoy along a sandy path that will take us to Driftwood Beach in a moment... And here we are! Morning Glory! I remember starting to scan this myriad of trees scattered over more than a kilometer. Trees shortened or broken, sharpened, protruding and ready to defend themselves from the wrath of the sky and the fury of the ocean. Not to mention the seemingly indestructible live oaks and palms. Creatures or soldiers? Beasts or humans? Goddesses or heroes? Dream or nightmare? One seduced me, spoke to me, confronted me with my existence as an adventurer and artist far from home... Majestically guarded, it represents an example of resilience and natural beauty rarely attained in my eyes. This tree, this driftwood, has been carved by time, supplanting the magnificent ornamentation decorating Driftwood Beach. I've watched it thwart a storm, and I know it's weathered a few dozen hurricanes since taking its throne. This is the tree of my life: the one that brought me face to face with my thoughts and questions... This "rock-solid" plant being, this embodiment of eternity, has become the reflection of my thoughts. The millennial character of this live oak resonated with the dimension of immortality evoked by divinities. 

I see the symbolism of that tree in : 

- its relationship to the world: the dialectic between the Tree of Life and Driftwood Lady, their vital inherence, the didactic father-daughter relationship. 

- its relationship with me, Homo sapiens and artist: the mirror and vault of my thoughts, as if I'd always longed for this magnificent opportunity, this accident of a journey. And so began the allegory of a life, its fall and rebirth.

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Osmosis - Symbiosis - Metamorphosis 

There is the chemical process of life and its connection with my imaginary world I'd like to talk about.

Observing more closely, even more closely, always more closely, when the energy of passion drives me. It's as if I'm walking with the harmony found in nature's splendor. Driftwood Lady evolves in an osmotic relationship with the Tree of Life. The protagonist changes her existence twice, metamorphosing as she learns from this osmotic relationship, becoming symbiotic.

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Origins of the creation and its process: 

The artistic syncretism (visual-sound-textual) sought in both form and content, also corresponds to my attempt to harmonize image, text and sound, as well as my search for unity in the work.
Some images led me to put in abyme The Marriage of Heaven and Hell published in 1793 and written by the incandescent poet, painter, engraver and printer William Blake. Driftwood Beach abounds in delights for the eyes. It's a poetic orchard of enigmatic fruit that has become a metaphor for some of the proverbs in The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. "Blake's essential originality lies in the passionate humanism with which he proclaims the sacred value of creative energy in general, and of the poetic imagination in particular, in which he sees not only the form but the very source of the divine. In this way, he heralds and anticipates most of the achievements of European Romanticism," writes Robert Paul. https://artsrtlettres.ning.com/m/blogpost?id=3501272%3ABlogPost%3A1362392 

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Greek references and influences: 

The choice and role of divine and heroic figures from Greek mythology were obvious to me - as I found them in front of me on this boneyard tree. I tried to do a mise en abyme of a two lovers' myth, Orpheus and Eurydice. My imagination depending on my own cultural background led me to transform legendary characters such as Cerberus, who became the Beast, and Eurydice, the Beauty.

In this surreal vision, in contact with the elements of Driftwood Beach's singular nature, I began to practice abstraction, moving away from the scientific evidence of the real. I tried to compose a contemporary myth, drawing on ancient Greek myths and certain totemic forms. My aim was to develop a universal language in response to the multiplicity of crises in the world and the violence that has given way to barbarism. 

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The fantastic aspect of the tale and my attachment to the American Dark Romantics and Gothics (1800-1865):

This was a time of sentiment, intuition and idealism. A movement that placed faith at the heart of inner experience and imagination. Poetry was considered the highest expression of the spirit. American dark romantics and gothic writers combined these values with sometimes obscure supernatural themes and settings. E.A.Poe was as moving as his life was. He was one of the main authors who showed me what darkness could be in his life as a man and an artist. On Driftwood Beach, I discovered a passage that led me to this gothic darkness (the central part of the work).

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A natural, divine relationship:

Animism was defined by the British ethnologist Edward B. Tylor (1871) as the belief that nature is governed by spirits similar to the human will. The study of this beach led me to question animism, then totemism, as opposed to naturalism, the theory that only human beings have an inner life. I'm not convinced by this scientific position... let's be more spiritual. Tylor saw animism as the primitive form that gave rise to all religions.

 

Photography 

My aim was to render as best I could the living, or "survivor", cradled in sunlight revealing life in what is no longer biologically so. 

This project grew out of the photographs I took during three sessions on Driftwood Beach, and another session afterwards with the future Driftwood Lady. It all started at that point, after that last shoot, without yet knowing exactly what the final development and story would be. However, I still have the vision of the Marriage of Heaven and Hell from the session that was as improvised as it was unimaginable during the stormy weather I'll talk about later... 

What the B&W and color photographs have in common - and what I'm looking for more than anything else - is to evoke the shooting star of emotions, which in its wake reveals sensations, impressions, expressions, so many feelings that touch us personally and, it happens, deeply... The multitude of grey shades found on this beach first surprised me, then made me consider their extent and richness. Not forgetting the crystal-blue sky, fading to the horizon and revealing pure, limpid shades of grey... Between the deep black of the shadows and the sparkling white of the reflections, I was nearly blinded by the intense sunlight falling on the live oaks. These oaks looked like witches in silver robes, their arms ending in clawed hands... One tree in particular, in pictures: II-III-VII-VIII-XX-XXII Sharp claws that can be so dangerous that I injured myself and almost lost my left eye. The staff at the Brunswick,GA public hospital treated me perfectly. The adventure continues, and it will be strewn with accidents from which I'll have to recover!

A close friend, Thomas Léon, inspired me when I saw him photographing exclusively in B&W. As we discussed the idea of "black and white" with him, we realized that the purpose and result in images inevitably led to a particular rendering of reality; one that could give rise to the unreal (the imaginary) and the surreal, or even to the interpenetration of ordinary reality and dream or the unconscious: surrealism. I had to take these routes to gain experience, always ready to experiment...

Once I'd experimented with these photographic manipulations and abstractions, I took some shots looking for contrast in the texture of the wood of these trees. Photographs XXVII, XXVIII, XXIX, XXXI are the proofs. Image XXIX is a photo, not a drawing or graphic creation.

Basically, Driftwood Beach is the perfect place to discover "natural photography". Having observed the passage of the sun from sunrise to sunset, depending on the presence or absence of clouds, in any season, I can tell you: go there and you'll understand!

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This work also aims to reveal unsuspected landscapes and horizons that delight our eyes and soothe our souls. And in so doing, highlight the inherent connections that can exist with other oceanic and insular territories, coastal, near or far.

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To conclude this presentation of my artistic statement, I would like to point out that "Driftwood Lady from Jekyll Island" is the first opus of the trilogy "The Story of Driftwood Lady": youth (I), adulthood (II), old age (III), or the existence of a woman in our (too) fast-changing world...

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