Friends forever

There is another artist I visited a few years back.

I've only mentioned her briefly on an earlier post, Let the journey happen. I haven't been able to find the words to capture our relationship in one post, so I've resisted giving you more information. All the while, it doesn't do this artist justice. You see she is my dear, dear friend and our relationship has grown so deeply over the years, we call each other sisters.

Oddly, a lot of you already know her.

She is Martine-Alison and she lives in France. My twin across the pond! When I visited her in Lyon, we had been writing to each other daily for over two years. I still remember our first communications together. It was instant excitement for both of us! Emails were flying back and forth, like we were trying to imitate instant messaging. Luckily for us we understood each other's language. This enabled us to write in our own language. Sometimes reading a foreign language gets challenging. When I open my web browser, WordReference.com is what I see. This gives me instant access whenever I need to pop a word in for translation.

We've been through everything together. She is my best friend.

Our communicating evolved to instant messaging and eventually to skype, where we get free video connections. Its more than a phone call, its like a visit. Long before we found blogging, the daily evolutions of our paintings were shared with each other. The wonderful support we all find here, she and I have shared for many years.

She has been my faithful follower since day one. After some time, she too decided to begin a blog. Her work is as colorful as her personality is. You will find it completely unique. She paints a female, her "petite femmes" as she calls them. They are from her imagination. She never uses a model. She also designs all the clothes she dresses them in (when in fact they are dressed...). She could have been a clothes designer, easily! How I'd love to have some of her wonderful dresses.

These petite femmes live in her imaginary world. Her flora is interesting and exciting. Animals are a constant in the picture, even to the point that Leo the toucan narrates her blog.

After our three day visit, she promised to come here to Maine. Her petite femmes tell the story of her life and if you go see her latest post, you might agree with me that it surely appears like she is headed to America! I'm very excited. I do hope it will happen...

She calls her studio her dollhouse. And a doll house it is! So beautiful and romantic. We've dreamed of painting there together. Eventually we did. Through skype on her laptop, we've painted side-by-side in different countries! Its hard to say which one of us is the nuttiest. She likes to call herself a fruitcake. As you might imagine, laughs are a constant between us. She has even skyped me during some of my classes to meet my students! Its as though we live near each other. All of our friends know about the other and when she does come here, I have a long list of people who can't wait to finally meet her in person.

Susan Roux and Martine-Alison

She has put so much sunshine in my life. I hope you go follow her. Martine-Alison has plenty of sunshine to share...

(Photographs by Michael McAllister)