Would you define your creative process as innovative?
I rely on a traditional technical basis, but I have an aesthetic language and a self-taught approach. Having not been trained gives me a certain freedom, I am mainly guided by my sensitivity. It is not a desire to innovate, but an instinctiveness that opens up the field of possibilities.
What do you enjoy most about making mosaics?
I love my work so much that I could talk about it for hours. But what I like most about it is its symbolism: creating harmony with heterogeneous fragments that reveal themselves in contact with each other.
©Samantha Guillon
Is there an unforgettable moment in your professional life?
Once at a trade fair three elderly gentlemen came to see my work. They looked at it closely, smiled, touched it, nodded, liked it, but didn't seem to want to buy it. I discovered that they had worked with the great mosaicist Odorico. They saw his legacy in my work, his influence, and they were happy about that.
Do mosaics have a long history with France?
Yes. Mosaic work, as and where I practice it, is linked to a decorative, utilitarian and architectural heritage. Decorative mosaic has always adorned and protected certain places such as floors, walls, cafés, butcher and fishmonger shops, public baths, halls of buildings… and in all types of architecture.