Universe.
HOW IT ALL COMES TO LIFE
“I paint as I breathe.”
The workshop, living space.
My workshop is in Marseille, in the heart of the la Belle de Mai! The most cosmopolitan district of the city… Everything is true, nothing is expensive!
In my street was born the great César Baldaccini! He compressed tons of cars because he couldn’t afford to cast bronze… A “necessary” innovation sublimated by the miracle of creation.
My painting allows me to access a state of inner peace, but the place also has an important role, to reach the right level of vibration. When I return to my cocoon, I am in the best environment, for my biggest fight… That of the soul.
My work motto: “Sometimes the best thing to do is to do nothing”.
The space around the creation is as important as the realization itself. Each brushstroke on the canvas is sacred, it must be the fairest, the most balanced!
I am an artist crossed with a top athlete, who uses 50% of his time to regenerate good energies, physical and mental, to prepare and visualize his next performance. Every day I spend two hours in transport to come and create in Marseille.
My workshop is a laboratory where the products represent the material and the creative process, the spirit. The ideal refuge to synchronize my soul, the universe and the materials…
Philosophy.
“I paint… Just as I breathe”
Although my discovery of art came late, I knew right away that I was consumed by this new passion.
At first, my ego took over everything, I thought I had a super power, and everything I did seemed incredibly beautiful! However, for more than ten years, I was very poor … but very enthusiastic! No matter how others looked, that energy was stronger than anything… stronger than me. Spinoza said: “It was divinely written in my heart”
Mihoub is not a “blaze”, it’s my real name! Which means “the gift” in Arabic. And as Zizou says so well… Talent is good, but if you don’t work on it, that’s not everything.
One day, I finally accepted and understood that my gift, was to let myself be permeated by divine creation.
So I worked. I no longer seek to do what I want, but with what I have. The different choices, the alternations of rhythm and all the actions follow one another at such a speed that reflection has no place. The ego puts itself at the service of the creator and I become a tool among tools, the extension of something bigger than my little person. It is this ability to connect that I decided to explore.
The story of Jean Todt, a former French rally co-driver who went on to become managing director of Peugeot and then Ferrari, reinforced my decision.
He has explored his field of expertise more deeply than anyone before him, transformed the role of co-driver and revolutionised the motor racing industry.
He also had the brilliant idea of collaborating with César Baldaccini…
Before being an artist, I am a researcher who uses painting as a means of exploring my inner potential.
It is by developing this ability to produce works of art that reflect who I am on the inside, with ever-increasing rigour, that I have become the spectator of my own creation.
Today, words have regained an important place in my work, the curves of the letters join those of my wacky characters and give birth to a comic strip on canvas.
Depending on the universe in which I decide to travel, I set a technical framework and I let my imagination do the rest. The products are superimposed on each other, with their drying times, they guide the entire process of assembling the work. An expansion of my inner world, through an alchemical and artistic quest.
Influences.
The surrealists were my first source of inspiration.
Jackson Pollock was also inspired by the surrealists and he “broken the ice” with his action painting. His works had an incredible consistency in his mind and on the canvas. He was the first artist to unconsciously develop an acceleration of his cognitive functions in the creative process.
Over time, the codes of contemporary art began to classify me in the art brut box.
Dubuffet gave a definition that could have corresponded to me during my first years of painting: “He who makes art brut does not know that he is making art”. But I know that I make art and I prefer the quote from Socrates: “All I know is that I know nothing”.
My inspirations are becoming increasingly philosophical and spiritual: Socrate, Carl Yung, Mathieu Ricard, Frédéric Lenoir, Spinoza, Eckart Tolle…
And I’m still fascinated by the work of painters like Soulages, Renoir, Vermeer, Van Gogh, Picasso, Basquiat, Munch… or even Cecily Brown and Georges Condo.
Today I can say that I am a mindful artist.
When I paint, my thoughts gradually fade away, giving way to the creative flow of mindfulness. That’s how I paint: I do and I let it happen, it’s like a dance or a ballet, everything is in harmony at each stage of creation. Ce qui m’importe, c’est ce que je ressens quand je travaille : relié directement à l’âme du monde, j’écoute mon sonar intérieur.
Une quête du bonheur absolu que je traduis sur mes toiles avec humour, gloire et beauté.
The universes.
SEE ALL ARTWORKS
“My favorite canvas is the one I’m going to do!” Pierre Soulage.
The five themes I am presenting to you are the result of an analysis of my work over the last two years (around 100 paintings): they offer a overview of my artistic style to date.
My work is constantly evolving; it remains recognisable, but I cannot say that I have arrived anywhere…
What matters is the journey… Isn’t it?
With each new canvas, I seek to establish contact with the miracle of creation. To vary the pleasures and stimulate my creativity, I impose a technical framework on myself and I let go of the horses.
Sometimes I can’t respect this framework and it then gives life to a new universe…
