NATHALIE LÉTÉ.

Nathalie Lété 

Artist, Studio, Paris

 

Hi, Could you tell us who you are and where do you come from? 
I'm a woman artist of 51 years old, and I am born in Paris, from a German mother and a Chinese father. I live in Paris, I'm married with a French painter and I'm a mother of two kids of 17 and 20 years old. 

Your work is really poetic with a total freedom. Where do you find your inspiration? 
I do similar things as I did when I was a kid. I mix different technics, colors, mediums, style of art... I like a patch of my favorite themes (animals, pattern of textiles, Flowers, vintage toys, folk art...) to build a personal world which gives me happiness and self confidence. I like to paint, to do ceramics, to embroid. I love textile, vibrations of colors, and try to have emotions and if possible to give the others some emotions through my work. 

Are you formally trained or self-taught? And what defines good design for you?
I studied at L'école des arts appliqués Duperé and then L'école des beaux arts in Paris. But I am also very interested in rough work, and I specially like when art stay naive. So I like to try to keep freshness and the naivety of the childhood. That is one of the definition for me of a good work. Also the most important thing to me: a good work should gives me emotions, it should surprise me and gives me the feeling of harmony. 

Can you describe your job in 3 words? 
My job in three words: organisation, creation, open my eyes.. 

For how long are you working in this studio and is there a story you can share about this place?
We bought this place 15 years ago, at the same time as our house which is just next to it. It was a solution to have the kids in the garden playing with other kids at same time as working... This is an old factory of metal, where they did some part of the eiffel tower. I like to live here because it is next to Paris, and I have the space, light, garden to eat outside by nice weather, and it is quite. 

What do you love about living here?
I love Paris, because as a nostalgic person, I really feel the past, and I enjoy to imagine myself at the 19 century. I particulary like it in the morning very early, when the streets are empty and just the first people begin to work and open their cafés... 

How do you start your day and what does your daily routine looks like?
A regular day is waking up at 7am, taking my breakfast while reading emails and Instagram. Going to work at 8:30 am after the home occupations of a mother, work until 1 pm in my studio which is 5 minutes from my house. Have a break with my husband for the lunch at home, eating all the rests of our last dinner, and then go back to work until 6 pm. Prepare dinner, watch tv with my husband and do foot massage at same time to each others and go to bed around 10.30. I have a very very regular life. I don't need really to go out and see friends. I do not have a big social life, even if i would like sometimes to go out more. I don't have the energy to do it really... 

Week ends, we go for a walk in the forest with our dachshund, and visit an exhibition, go to work 3 hours in the studio, come back to see a movie and have sometimes dinners with friends. My husband is going often to vernissages and have many artist friends. I like to stay at home and read books, keep all my energy for my work in fact. I must say that my job is the most important thing in my life, it feeds me really.

Thank you Nathalie for your time! You have the most colorful and dreaming studio. Please check her website at www.nathalie-lete.com. 

PARIS EN VRAC.

Few pictures from my last trip in Paris...

PASCALINE BLANCHECOTTE.

Pascaline Blanchecotte 

Video Director, Home studio, Paris 

Describe the first moment that you truly felt like an artist.
Feeling an artist for me is more about being sensitive and curious about what surrounds us, eyes opened to the world and people, so I guess since I am a child actually. But being an artist as I hear it, is having a gallery that sells and supports the work, participate to exhibitions or fairs and have people talk or write about it, which I don’t, so with this definition I don’t consider truly myself as an artist but more as a video director.

Are you formally trained or self-taught?
I am both, formally trained in l'Ecole des Beaux arts de Nantes on art in general and reasoning, and self-taught with technical aspects of video, and everyday since then.

Can you explain what kind of projects you work on?
I work with video images, it can be directing, shooting, editing or all at the same time. I do videos for a gallery named Galerie De Multiples which is located in the Marais in Paris that uses my videos as « teasers » to promote their exhibitions… I am totally free for these projects, which is very nice. I do music videos. And I work for advertising companies or even on a length film right now as a second director in order to orient the director with the aesthetic, the rhythm, the framing, editing or even the choice of music.

And what is it that you love about working with video? 
I think I love everything about it! Movement and time of course which makes it unique, different of all other mediums, but I like also the music & sound a lot, the frame, the camera, the editing, the freedom about it being somehow immaterial and at the same time so close to reality, that’s what makes it so interesting and that’s where destabilization resides.

Can you describe your job in 3 words?
Passion, pleasure, patience. (3P ;))

Do you have some projects for the future that you want to talk about?
Well I’d like to make a short film, I’m working on the writing.

How do you start your day and what does your daily routine looks like?
My day starts with taking care of my son and coffee! Then with turning on the computer which stays on after that all day long.

You are a single mom and you work from home. How do you manage that?
I manage it like everyone else I think, before 8:30 am and after 6pm I am all for my son, in between work work work.

Can you work with your little one next to you sometimes?
No not really, if I do there will be foolishness done whether by the kid whether by me…

What is the best part about being your child's mother?
The magic of the unique way the child sees things and understands the world on his own, and the hugs of course.

Do you have any advice for other single parents?
It’s only a transition anyway but to make it acceptable for the child, I think parents if possible must get along which is actually our case, his dad and I are still best friends. Being honest with ourselves about what we can do and what we can’t, because of course we can’t do everything by our own.

What's a typical day, spending time with your child when in the city?
Typical day is going to the fresh market next door buy good fish or meat and vegetables, then rest at home then going to the parc Montsouris also next door ride ponies and play ball.

Describe Paris in 3 words.
Beautiful, surprising and familiar at the same time.

What is your favorite places to eat in Paris?
Fresh oysters and white wine for lazy Saturday noon at any “Bar à huîtres”, “Le camion qui fume” (best hamburgers made in a truck) in front of the cinema MK2 at Bibliothèque François Mitterrand before going to the cinema. The Chateaubriand which is now one of the 50 best restaurants in the world, which I know the owner, for a special night.

When you have a child free night where do you hang out?
No hesitation with friends usually in the Marais, some of my friends work at Agnes B gallery, so it is most of the time where we start the night.


A big MERCI Pascaline for your time and the good meal. Check out her tumblr on that page: http://pascalineblanchecotte.tumblr.com/

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