Fleur Thesmar
Trinity, 2021
cotton on linen 6x8
After the Trinity by Rublev, hand embroidery on linen.
Fleur Thesmar
, 2023
linen 6x8
After a film photography in bulb mode
Fleur Thesmar
, 2022
Cotton embroidery over linen 16x22
Burdened by a glowing (burning?) cape and surrounded by insisting ivy, the sticky glow of loneliness is cast over the sad figure. I’ve made this embroidery after the unending covid crisis, an isolation that made us sick and had tremendous depressing effects on many young people.
Fleur Thesmar
, 2023
Linen, milkweed, wool, cotton, cyanotype, video 35x42 inches
"Nothing happened" is an artwork by Fleur Thesmar. It's made of with a physical material, an embroidered canvas, and a movie designed to be projected either on the canvas or on its side (visible on my website). Both have been inspired by the same imagery of gardens and roses, wild weeds and trees. But the subject is the confrontation of beauty and pain, like the thorny rose. On the hand woven canvas, Thesmar inserted her own handspun threads of milkweed and pink wool, in the shapes of pink tears. They represent the tears of powerlessness in front of pain and the additional mental pain in front of indifference. All around have been embroidered suggestions of beauty, present all around us in gardens and in the wilderness, sometimes looking indifferent, sometimes as a consolation against affliction. Two cyanotypes are printed on the canvas with thorny flowers and thistles. The video suggests that the world goes on in its mesmerizing beauty. The canvas is 35x42 inches.
Fleur Thesmar
No plastic, 2022
Paper, linen, shredded magazines, avocado and flower dyes, cotton thread, handwoven wool, pigments, soy milk 36x27
No Plastics: why such a strong statement, a bit backward, complicated and inefficient? Most people told me I should get desensitized to my allergies to pesticides. I became allergic to paint. This summer I understood I was the problem: wildlife too, is threatened by our abuse of plastic. In this piece, I explored tools available to me for making a soft sculpture. It's a kind of protest against the plastic esthetics, too. The work resonates with my other abstract works.
Fleur Thesmar
Reflection, 2021
wool, hand dyed, hand-woven 26x34
As I became unable to use ready made tube paints, due to allergies and asthma, I began to make tapestries. I use grids based on the golden number to express a feeling of detachment and reversal that I feel when I contemplate.
Fleur Thesmar
The Lost Fight Against Beauty, 2022
cotton threads and linen canvas 12x15 inches
By combining images of human-made and natural subjects in my artworks, I aim to challenge the feeling of oppression induced by our times. I am interested in the emotions of distanciation or (reversely) fusion, to the world. In recent months, I felt language became dysfunctional. The art of conversation has grown fragile. Yet human words give us the illusion that nothing in the world is out of our understanding. I intend to depict unspeakable stories with many layers of interpretation. Because of an allergic condition, I became forced to use non-allergen natural pigments and surfaces, which reconstitute an antique color space. While desperate about not being able to "paint", I became very slowly aware that this poisoning by plastics, preservatives and chemicals was also impairing our environment. This event of a highly allergic condition led me to blur the border between painting, drawing, weaving and embroidery. I explore technical possibilities to renew our imagery, but how to paint beautiful, poisoned landscapes now? I initially began drawing with an interest in landscapes and in the representation of space. In drawings and paintings, I reverse the traditional perspective, using instead a personal composition structure based on the golden ratio.
Fleur Thesmar
Self portrait, 2020
Cotton thread, linen canvas 17x23
In 2020, I became unable to use ready-made paints due to an allergy and asthma. I began to embroider using collaged digital images. This is the first embroidery I made, using pictures from France and the USA, and showing me as a painter.
Fleur Thesmar
Dawn, 2021
wool 26x34
As I became unable to use ready made paints, I used tapestry to express my ideas about contemplation. In here, proportions related to the golden number are creating detachment from the object we are looking at. I enjoyed playing with the natural colors of the churro yarn to express a natural softness.
Fleur Thesmar
Thistles, 2022
cotton thread on linen canvas 8x10
By combining images of human-made and natural subjects in my artworks, I aim to challenge the feeling of oppression induced by our times. I am interested in the emotions of distanciation or (reversely) fusion, to the world. In recent months, I felt language became dysfunctional. The art of conversation has grown fragile. Yet human words give us the illusion that nothing in the world is out of our understanding. I intend to depict unspeakable stories with many layers of interpretation. Because of an allergic condition, I became forced to use non-allergen natural pigments and surfaces, which reconstitute an antique color space. While desperate about not being able to "paint", I became very slowly aware that this poisoning by plastics, preservatives and chemicals was also impairing our environment. This event of a highly allergic condition led me to blur the border between painting, drawing, weaving and embroidery. I explore technical possibilities to renew our imagery, but how to paint beautiful, poisoned landscapes now? I initially began drawing with an interest in landscapes and in the representation of space. In drawings and paintings, I reverse the traditional perspective, using instead a personal composition structure based on the golden ratio.
