Very close to the beautiful city of Saumur, on the Loire river, there is a forest unlike any other. Let's meet a unique artist.
I spotted strange white traces on tree trunks. I was getting closer, and these tracks turned into a rabbit. I continued My Journey and fell face to face with a young woman drawing with chalk.
I was getting closer and closer. Her name was Sekhmet - an Egyptian goddess in the forests of Anjou! In front of my astonished gaze, she said to me : “Sekhmet, she is the dualistic goddess, destructive and creative. She is just like all of us." I continued to walk with her, and I discovered new creations all the way through the forest.
She told me that after several experiences, she decided to focus on photography — the only way to give full life to her inner world. The discovery of land art and artist Nils Udo triggered her new vocation. From the summer of 2015 on, her childhood forests begin to populate with her paintings characters (made from biodegradable materials-chalk or lime). The land art tells me - it is the right thing to do, the work is born, lives and dies, just like us, humans.
As we continued, we reached a meadow. Sekhmet began to draw a horse based on Lime and fire paste and then set fire to his mane and hooves. The night began to fall, we slowly came out of the forests and she told me about her other achievements in industrial wild lands mixing street art, anamorphosis and light painting.
It is at the end of our meeting that she tells me these words which have struck me : “there is beauty in everything, it is enough to take the time to observe it and sometimes to adopt the right perspective to perceive it. That's why I'm so attracted to anamorphosis.
As in life, sometimes we don't see things unless we're on the right track. Kind of hide-and-seek that we play without realizing it with the world. Sometimes a slight change of point of view finally enables to capture the image.
How does Sekhmet carry out her anamorphosis?
She doesn't usually know what she's going to achieve until she finds the perfect spot. It's like trees or walls call for a particular image. When she finds it, the image imposes itself on her. She sees the work ends before it begins. Only then she sketches to approach the final image that she has the mind. She creates her image on the computer using a graphic tablet and an image processing software. The resulting file is then used for a video projection : she will draw the contours necessary for the realization of the painting. Therefore, she only paints at night and she does the touch-up painting during the day.
Nicolas Sarazin
