Over the coming weeks our wonderful pin badge volunteer Chloé Valorso will be sharing some of her beautiful sketches with us while she is in lockdown in Paris. Hopefully these will inspire some of you to pick up a pencil and paper and reconnect with nature from your kitchen table.
Chloé, is an artist-storyteller. After graduating from both Central Saint Martins and the Royal College of Art she has enjoyed many adventures, discovering cultures and skills around the world. She is currently one of the artists in residence at the Glasgow School. At the moment she is in residence at her family home in Paris...
Here she shares a bit about her art, her love of RSPB pin badges and life in lockdown in Paris.
Inside Spring... #DrawABirdDay
When I draw, sculpt, make jewellery, I always see it as a way to reconnect with our surrounding environment. I am interested in magical thinking, what we believe and how we believe in it today. I use organic materials in a contemporary context to invite us to re-enchant the world and reconnect to ourselves, each other and nature.
Chloe working on sketches.
I believe in the animistic vision where everything as a soul. I have always drawn animals.
When I started my artist residency at the Glasgow School of Art I was amazed by all the surrounding nature here in Scotland.
I met Shona, the community fundraiser at the opening of The Nature Library at Project Cafe, I was trying to decide how many RSPB pins I could wear in one go. As a jeweller, I loved the pins at first sight and knew it was the perfect fit to volunteer.
One of Chloe's sketches of a baby robin
We have been on lockdown in France since March 15, and it's challenging in unexpected ways. Of course, florists closed at the beginning and the next day it was the parks. Not being able to touch the earth, smell the flowers, see the wildlife has been really hard.
I also decided it was time for a spring cleaning of my teenage bedroom; instead I find myself diving deep in memories, looking back at sketches, notes, lists of project ideas...
I also found blank sketchbooks and reached out to Cecile at the with the project of drawing our RSPB animals.
Chloe's red squirrel
I had the chance to do a yoga teacher training last month, so I am using the tools I learned with meditation and mindfulness to feel grounded and allow myself to slow down.
https://www.instagram.com/chloevalorso/?hl=en
https://twitter.com/chloevalorso
https://www.facebook.com/iwasborninazoo/