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| 1997-2000 |
| Workshop of Bruno Mathon, artist and Art critic |
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| 1997-1999 |
| Ateliers Beaux-Arts of Paris ( drawing, painting, gravure ) |
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| 1996-1998 |
| DEUG de Langues Étrangères Appliquées
Université de Paris 8
English - German |
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| 1995-1996 |
| Atelier-school Leconte, Paris |
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| 1991-1994 |
| Academy La Grande Chaumière, Paris |
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| BM: When you are painting what is the most important thing, the central thing ? |
| Sonia: The balance between form and color. The balance and evolution of the colors themselves, evolving in mass and resonance.. Then appears a kind of music. That’s why I listen to a lot of music while I paint. It influences me a lot. I never listen to classical music though, it moves me too much. I’m expressing an inner music in a kind of rythmical composition of colors.. . But the musicality is not always at the center of what I am doing, it depends on the paintings, Some follow the dictates of other incentives. |
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| BM: What part does thought play ? |
| Sonia: Thought appears when I start to touch up a painting after a first sketch that is often spontaneous. I see very quickly what is wrong regarding the balance of rythms and colors. That’s a thinking moment . Of course I ‘m also thinking during the previous moment but in an abstract way, I am obviously obliged to think about what I am going to do, about the prior idea. But after when I start retouching my work, I am looking for the right note, I think by acting on the canvas. At the beginning I see forms and colors but it is imprecise and so I need to draw to make them appear then going into detail, I polish. |
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| BM: Is meaning, signification important for you ? |
| Sonia: There is no concept. Signification is related to emotions, it’s really pictorial. The meaning is not important. I was fascinated by colors when I was a child, I loved to play with the colors of building blocks. It also took me a long time to dress up, to choose the colors of my clothes, I often put different colored socks on each foot. In fact my taste of color organization comes from way back, it is a game. I like the spontaneaous side of this collection, I think it is linked to the colors and for example I have never done black and white paintings ; I will maybe do some one day, but the colors call for forms and help them to exist. I think of a color and the form appears suddenly in shape of a big recumbent rectangle or a circle… Color and form are indissociable. Certain colors have more weight than other ones and where a little note of a certain color I will put in a little square, if I put it in a big one we will see only it. |
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| BM: What is the importance of light ? |
| Sonia: Very important in my paintings. I worked on the night’s light and the effect it has on darkness, on obscurity. In Dakar by night I worked the color black ; on the other hand in Paris by night I went towards blue. I want to do more paintings whith initial inspiration coming from light ; maybe creating transparencies, using another medium like installation or video. br> Anyways light is central but I don’t represent it, it is the product of my imagination after for example, the observation of the urban landscape here in Paris : a panorama where we see lights point ; I then retranscribe the lights coming from reality into the painting. I work with faraway memories, reminiscences or even sometimes pictures. In fact I retranscribe light into geometrical patterns : if I put there a lighter square than the other one, it will immediatly illuminate the painiting. Nothing to do with Turner or Whisler, I’m creating a pattern, there is no halo. I would like to make one day a painting inspired by the Eiffel Tower flickering through the night. |
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| BM: Are your paintings organic or mechanical ? |
| Sonia: They’re more about visual mechanics. I create abstract objects, « systems ». Patterns are generated and change almost with each painting because the reality that inspires them is different. I don’t try to represent night in Paris, I show something that is in my head, something that has been named by observation : it’s a mental product designated by a reality. It’s a personal vision, a game, the painting is an image that arrives. It’s an abstract way to show the reality. |
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| BM: What is the part of emotion ? |
| Sonia: My eyes feed off what I see , reality moves me. There are some things that some find ugly and in which I find beauty. Each individual has his own vision of things. I see things that move me, I use them as a subject but they can appear as being perfectly banal to someone else. Everyone has his vision, his own esthetical perception. The subject is an instrument to arouse a painting but it always comes from an esthetical emotion. I would really like to paint fireworks for example ; it sounds difficult but maybe one day I will succeed... |
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| Paris, 18th march 2007 |
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Interview by Bruno Mathon
Français
English
