2019

“Stasis (intasy)” Photo © Pierre Raby, January 2019

January 2019, Studio update

First of all, I would like to thank each of you for your support throughout 2018, my partner in life, our extended family, friends, subscribers, collectors, followers…
At the very beginning of last year, many exciting plans were on the table, but life had some other scripts in store for Michel and myself,
which have slowed down and put my artistic endeavors in a strange and unexpected forced hiatus.
As a result of the “event” that occurred in our life end of 2017, and having to suppress emotions in order to give good support to Michel during his long recovery, the aftermath brought up some high levels of anxiety to the surface, which was in retrospect very predictable. I’ve been then forced to take a long pause to heal myself from what we could call a post-traumatic condition. 
Last Fall, knowing that he would finally be fine and after I had cleared out enough my own path, another severe health crisis happened and I had to bring him once again to the Emergency, knowing without doubts how this was directly related to 2017.
Aside the fear and all the worries for my partner’s safety and health that come with the situation, 2018 has oddly felt like a groundhog day, a long tunnel where we were seeing the light with great hope yet always pushed away from our reach.  
Every human encounters many hard bumps in the road during a lifetime, and some challenges give us any other choices than to surrender and evaluate each aspect of living, resulting in a deep catharsis that change us to the core.
After two months off from work this Fall, having dug very deep into any of our medicine and alternative knowledge gathered over the years and with the help of his dedicated doctors and specialists, we happily emerge and sense a new bright cycle approaching.
 
Art
Some of you might have noticed that for about two years,  I’ve been intensively exploring with the photographic medium.
This allows me to quickly multiply experiments while revisiting my early professional years  devoted to design and sculpture, and also to reflect on what I envision with painting at this time, its relevance, and how I can play my part as an artist.
Initially used as a sketching method to play with light, themes, compositions and colors, the series generated within this process have slowly become a body of work that stand on its own.
I might confess that having been stopped from my usual pace of production, has built in a very exciting inner pressure.
Lately I’ve been working on a small oil painting that should appear on this site in a couple of days, and hopefully many more will follow.
 
Wishing you all a magnificent New Year, filled with love, joy, art, health, acceptance, wholeness
and anything that make your soul vibrate to some great new levels!
Pierre