Every once in a while an artist stands out from the crowd. He/she brings something to the creative sphere which begs for the stories behind the beauty. Therefore, this blog will present a series of interviews which try to unveil the roots of creativity. Enjoy.

• Full name: Simon Goinard Phelipot
• Age: 26
• Country: France (Orsay)
• Profession: Illustrator | Art director
• Website: Resonance-Art.com

It’s taken some time for you to feature in our interview series seeing the enormous amount of work you’ve been facing lately. Can you show us some recent works and the story behind each of them?

Sure, I’d love to. The painting below represents Amon, a character from an animated short which is currently under production. The story is based on the idea of ‘travel through matter’ and consists of a series of portraits like this one.

This is the cover for the second episode of the Ma’at comic book series published in France.

Chrestomathy, a cover done for a book collective of some really nice artists.

What are the 3 key words or themes which you want to express through your art?

Sensualism, Matter and Tension between abstraction and figuratism.

If not an artist, what job would you have?

It could have been nice to have Socrates or Epikuros‘ job in the Agora.

What should every beginning artist definitely (not) do?

You should try to know who you are, and should not try to get a style, you are your style, just be yourself.

How long does it take to create one piece of art?

A good piece of Art : a life.

Is there anything bizarre or weird which helps you to be creative? e.g. mud baths?

Chateau Figeac or Chateau la Tour (all good St-Emilion wines in fact…)

If you had to choose: color or form?

You know this question is just as masochistic as choosing to cut your arms or your legs,right?

Which art tools would you take with you when moving to the moon?

My mind i think.

Favourite book?

On the Nature of Things by Lucretius.

Who’s been a great inspiration to you and your work?

Kandinsky, for his visionary mind and for the lucidity of his work.

Last Saturday my future family in law and myself visited the new Magritte museum in Brussels for which, apparently, you should book your tickets in advance (thank God for organized girlfriends). The only thing I knew about Magritte were the pipes and apples and the contradictory phrases people exclaim when someone mentions the name Magritte. But this visit was an eye-opener and really got my head spinning. The saga surrounding him took me and the other visitors on a ride through the life of an artist who was born at the very end of the 19th century and saw modern society come to life in the light of circumstances most modern artists haven’t even seen a reflection of. Although I can recommend the museum for the ‘bigger picture’ it offers. (and make sure you get the headphones for explanations), here some paintings that really struck me.

Magritte is known for painting his wife very often, unlike other artists painting strangers all the time. René and Georgette Magritte (and their dog after the war) seem to me a romance worthy of their own novel. Seeing them fool around in the black&white videos they show at the museum tells a lot about the people behind the art. But the amount of paintings he made of his wife disturbed me a little as well. This painting was reproduced about four times because buyers kept asking for it. I wonder if I would so happily sell nude paintings of my wife to people. Isn’t this some kind of pimping? Anyway, I guess women prefer their husbands painting them nude and selling it instead of having strange women pose nude all the time. I guess nude painting always has its complexities for couples.

This is a painting which was bought by Sabena, the old Belgian Airlines now called Brussels Airlines after Sabena’s bankruptcy in 2001, to be used for their brand identity. The actual painting I’m referring to is different from this one and called ‘L’oiseau de ciel‘ (this one is ‘La Grande Famille’) but I couldn’t find a higher resolution. Differences are that the bird flies the other direction and the sea is actually the landing strip of Brussels Airport by night. Apparently it was sold after the bankruptcy to help raise money for the employees.

The essence of doors is seriously questioned here. Is the door the hole in the wall or the wooden screen closing the gap? Does the hole make the door as gap-closer redundant or does it reinstate its true function by again giving way to what lies behind? True philosophy, René, true philosophy.

This reminds me of some of the Muse albums (BTW: wow for their new album cover and can’t wait to hear the sounds!) which feature random poles or people or teddy bears in mathematical patterns in the air or on the ground. The impersonality of mathematics and numbers gets replaced with human people. Do the numbers get more human or the humans more impersonal?

This reminds me of a song my fiancee has on CD in the car and I’ve finally managed to sing along to. It’s by the Great Big Sea, called The Mermaid and very funny. If you need some uplifting music while you’re driving, their songs can definitely help.

Lastly, I want to point at Magritte’s signature which is used on posters and other print materials everywhere and which I’m very jealous of. It just works.

A few months ago my fiancee took out her old Playmobil pirate island and barbie dolls for her cousins at a family reunion. This made me think of the great toys we used to have. No rant against modern toys although I do think they are way less inspiring than what we used to play with in the 80’s. Just because kids like us used to have no X-box or 300+ channels on TV and we still had a more than great time …

Here some toys that filled my day-to-day activities and I must be forgetting some. Cowboy and indian are high on the list as well, together with my rubber canoe and bow (without the string after careful consideration by my parents) & arrow. Football would be the consistent sauce binding all other ingredients together. And that wooden car garage my dad made with a real light bulb inside. Here’s to great toys which, when I close my eyes, I can still smell, feel and hear.

The smell of Play-Doh and the way you weren’t supposed to mix colors. The awe you felt when looking into that Viewmaster. The great feeling of marbles in your pockets which made this screeching sound when pressed against each other. The fun of rewinding cassette tapes trying to find a song and the weirdness of all those songs on a tiny piece of celluloid. ‘For he’s a jolly good fellow‘ blasting from my Fisher Price tape recorder with that huge ‘eject’ button on the side. Playmobil and Lego, so different yet so the same. Super Wheels which would change color in hot water. And of course the electric train my dad put up on a tbale in the hallway and which he enjoyed at least as much as I did.