So this is it.
I was born in 1955 and studied in Nantes. I quickly went to ESC Business School where I was told about free enterprise. I thought it was a way to freedom so I started my businesses.
First by opening an insect-based food restaurant in Angers. We served the dishes on glass tables that housed spiders or reptiles. We also had a butterfly tree. But in the first winter the electrical system went out and the insects died.
Then I went to Dubai where I opened “French Furniture” a furniture and decoration store in the Regence and Louis XV styles.
Three years later I return to France and I become a show producer. I organise tours for Nougaro, Ferré and especially Higelin. In 1985 I quit the show business. I am 30 years old, two children and I realise that as an entrepreneur I did not find the freedom I had dreamed of. Constraints everywhere.
First in my one-bedroom flat in Aubervilliers then in Paris in an underground parking lot at Place d’Italie. In 2002 I turn professional and move to Grasse on the Cote d’Azur. I get permanent exhibitions in Saint-Paul-de-Vence and Monaco. In 2007 I have 4 assistants and sales are rapidly getting up. Russians, Americans, Germans, Swiss, Dutch, even buyers from singapore … Everyone wants to get some!
Then comes September 2008, the Madoff scandal and the beginning of the financial crisis. Everything stops suddenly. No more sales. I take action by setting more exhibitions but nothing helps. Everything is blocked. In early 2011, financially exhausted, I take refuge in the family home of Nantes where I set up my workshop.
With time, little by little, the market picks up again and customers come back. Today feels like before. I have assistants again, the sculptures are a little better and above all I still have faith … I still strongly believe.
Nantes (France), May 2019.