homme-assis-aveugle.jpg Painting by Massala

Hélène Labrousse, alias Massala, I currently live in French Guiana.
After training in plastic art in a workshop for two years with Jean Marc Dulau, professional artist (1983 1985), I continued my self-taught research after the death of my master in drawing and painting, thus continuing the path undertaken. I then exhibit in several places in the Landes where I live..
Despite my enthusiasm for painting, and undoubtedly also thanks to it, I stopped this activity for 12 years to devote myself more specifically to my questions about human beings and undertook training in Gestalt therapy to complete a thesis in 2003 and practice alongside my activity as a socio-cultural education teacher, where I teach, among other modules, that of Plastic Art, the profession of psychotherapist.
It was upon arriving in French Guiana that I decided, rich in my experiences and the maturity acquired, to pick up the brush again in 2011. Since then, I created an artists' collective with some painter friends in 2014 of which I am President. In six months, the collective reached the number of 22 active members and 30 sympathetic members. The collective then becomes an association and sets up study and creation workshops in order to promote research and emulation.

Creation process:
In my opinion, there are two main categories of artists: those who plan everything in advance (drawings, shapes, compositions, colors, techniques, etc.) and those who allow themselves to be led by the canvas and who are in this way as much spectator as they are. actor in the creative process. I belong to this second category. It is from a few spots of color or a few shapes emerging from collages of crumpled paper that I let myself be guided by the mystery of creation. Of course this observation could be nuanced as the one in control can, over the course of creation, become a spectator and in this way modify somewhat one's initial orientation, the opposite being true for those who allow themselves to be led by "accidents", by chance, and I would add more surely by what is inscribed in the here and now .

Two orientations, two styles:
My work has taken two different directions. Expressionist work with strong material and work related to that of free figuration where color predominates. It appears to me in fact that the object cannot always support the same style and that in spite of itself it imposes its demands in order to express itself.
My research on the material consists, for certain paintings, of gluing crumpled paper onto canvas and using the rough edges thus obtained to create reliefs with an aerosol spray, generally finished with acrylic paint, to place the luminous spaces and thus play on the values. I also sometimes add expanding foam to these paintings to mark the reliefs even more and thus show a work in 3D.

• Nationality: FRANCE
• Date of birth : 1962
• Artistic domains: Works by artists with a certified artist value,
• Groups: Certified Artists Contemporary French Artists