Interview with Chloé Alméras

"Art was visible and accessible everywhere... Books, movies, music... it certainly helps to develop a strong curiosity. Everything becomes food, and this curiosity accompanies me daily in my practice. I developed my imagination, my "world of my own" which becomes a strength in writing and drawing thanks to my family environment".
 
Clouée: Can you tell us about yourself and your background?
Chloé Alméras: I did a DMA Illustration at Estienne school in Paris, then I followed it up in 2017 with an FCND in illustration at Corvisart. I was selected that same year for the illustrators' exhibition that takes place in Bologna at the International Children's Book Fair every year. I was lucky enough to be chosen to design the visual identity of the Fair after an interview with Chialab (https://www.chialab.it/) in Italy. My professional career really started during this event.  I met some exciting people...I learned a lot working with Chialab to create the visual identity. It was one of the great meetings of my career.

How did you become an author? 
I have been immersed in an artistic environment since my childhood: my mother draws and my father writes. One of my grandmothers, a watercolorist and reporter, made me draw a lot when I was a child. She sharpened my eye. My other grandmother has many works of art in her home. She has a sense of aesthetics that I imbibed a lot as a child.
I did a general baccalaureate without really knowing what I wanted to do. I had many different ideas for jobs: midwife, oenologist, judge for children. I finally decided to do a MANAA in Paris, just after my baccalauréat. At the end of that year, I was sure that I would become a children's book author and illustrator.  

Where do your artistic influences come from? Who gave you this passion for drawing and the desire to make it your profession?
My mother drew a lot and we had the space and freedom to create at home. Art was visible and accessible everywhere... Books, movies, music... it certainly helps to develop a strong curiosity. Everything becomes food, and this curiosity accompanies me daily in my practice. I have developed my imagination, my "own world" which becomes a strength in writing and drawing thanks to my family circle. They never imposed anything on me in the choice of my studies.

Your poetic universe, colored with finesse, amazes us. Your delicate illustrations allow an immediate escape while awakening the readers on themes well anchored in a reality (the environment, fraternity, exile...).  Can you tell us more about the technique you use and your style?
I mainly use gouache and a very fine black felt-tip pen for certain details, such as the hands and faces in my albums. I discovered gouache in 2017 at Corvisart. Before, I was afraid to use color, and especially with a brush! It's a great pleasure for me to invent my colors, to use tiny brushes to create all kinds of details on the paper.

"There is the field of possibilities that opens up before me. When I draw in my notebooks, I don't know what will happen. I don't do pencils when I draw or paint "for me". I just jump in without knowing where my hand is going to lead me."

What is the stage in the creation that you like the most and the one that is the most complicated to achieve?
I like the research stage. For the triptych, I had collected on an A3 all the words that came to my mind in relation to dance. Images came to me. Then I made diagrams. Then I cropped and re-cut my drawings to find the angle that interested me the most.
Being an author, I have to confront myself with the right words, the ones that will allow me to transcribe the feeling I want to define before it escapes. I am very meticulous, whether it is in drawing or writing. It's as if I were a tightrope walker, I have to find this "rightness" with few words.

Can you tell us a few words about your next artistic projects?
Mumbo jumbo... (laughs)... Projects still in children's publishing.

Can you tell us about the emotions you feel when your drawing is finished and at what point you accept that it does not need any more retouching?
It's very complicated for me to say to myself, "That's it! You can't touch it anymore". For the triptych, I added details at the last minute: little plants, patterns on the kimono... Fortunately, there are deadlines, so I have to put my brush down at some point.

How do you feel about this famous blank page?
There is the field of possibilities that opens up before me. When I draw in my notebooks, I don't know what will happen. I don't do pencils when I draw or paint "for me". I go ahead without knowing where my hand is going to lead me. When I write, however, the blank page is more frightening. I don't know where to start, I have to find the thread and unroll it... There are days when I can't find it.

Can you tell us a few words about your next artistic projects?
Mumbo jumbo... (laughs)... Projects still in children's publishing.

Can you tell us about the emotions you feel when your drawing is finished and at what point you accept that it does not need any more retouching?
It's very complicated for me to say to myself, "That's it! You can't touch it anymore". For the triptych, I added details at the last minute: little plants, patterns on the kimono... Fortunately, there are deadlines, so I have to put my brush down at some point.

How do you feel about this famous blank page?
There is the field of possibilities that opens up before me. When I draw in my notebooks, I don't know what will happen. I don't do pencils when I draw or paint "for me". I go ahead without knowing where my hand is going to lead me. When I write, however, the blank page is more frightening. I don't know where to start, I have to find the thread and unroll it... There are days when I can't find it.

What are your work routines? What time of day do you get the most inspiration/ or are you the most productive?
I have few routines and don't feel the need to get to work. But schedules frame my days, as they do in all jobs! Every day is different depending on my schedule. This is one of the reasons why I like this job, which does not require repetition. On the other hand, I know that I find it easier to paint in the morning. In the evening, when the world falls asleep, when everything becomes calmer, it is a good time for me to write.

"I love dance and I go to a lot of it. I tried to get a more global feeling from these emotional moments. I tried to get away from the question of the individual, the dancer ... by looking for the movement in the living. Like a great movement that would bring the possibility of carrying life".

We are proud that you collaborate to our 2nd theme "If we danced ... ? What did you like about this project? What does this theme evoke in you?
I liked the freedom granted by Clouée very much. There is this sentence that you propose to us, an open theme that we must appropriate. The format of the triptych is imposed but we take the path we want. There is a benevolence and an accompaniment throughout the collaboration which is of great quality. I loved being able to launch myself into something new, on a fairly large format (for me it's unusual to work on such formats! Even if it may seem small to some...). It was a real challenge.

Tell us about the creative process of the triptych... How did you think about it and imagine it? What is its story?
I love dance and I go to see a lot of it. I tried to get a more global feeling from these emotional moments. I tried to get away from the question of the individual, the dancer ... by looking for the movement in the living. Like a great movement that would bring the possibility of carrying life. I started from the "tiny" dance in the first painting of the triptych. These hands dance, and the wind brings the movement of time passing. We cross the seasons.
In the dance performances I have seen, a pause in movement can bring incredible strength and emotion. The moment remains frozen but a lot of strength comes out of it. The woman in the last triptych, who puts her foot in the snow, enters the dance through the pause.
   
Which artist inspires you the most ?
Patti Smith is inhabited by a freedom and a dazzling talent. I love the way she thinks about our world, I love looking at it through her eyes. All artists nourish us, and what luck! But Patti Smith particularly touches me whatever medium she uses to express herself. She is a great poet and a great writer. 

Your favorite movie, series, comic book, book ?
The movie : Life is beautiful by Frank Capra
The series : Big Little Lies by David E.Kelly after the novel by Liane Moriarty.
The comic strip : Mafalda by Quino
For the books, it is impossible to choose only one...:  
The Conjuration of Fools by John Kennedy Toole
All the books of Robert Walser,
All books by Patti Smith.

What is the feeling you get when you imagine your illustrations hanging on the wall in our clients' homes, becoming part of their daily lives?
It's touching to put a little part of yourself in other people's homes, in companies... I also hope that it will arouse curiosity, to look at other techniques, other artists... That would be great.