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PASCALE BAUD
(A cat and mouse fictive, would-be, might-have-been unauthorized interview between Pascale Baud and Alex Nodopaka.) This is a curious situation where I tried on numerous occasions over several years to communicate with the artist Pascale Baud without avail except for a few arcane hints written with visual conundrums she sent me. I deducted that she was not accessible for interviews and suspect, based on our microscopic communications, that she is bound by a vow of silence if not on nunnery. I mean what if Pascale were to be like that famous French nun Soeur Sourire of Frère Jacques notoriety or Sister Wendy the British television art critic! Therefore I take upon myself to have a one way monologue asking and answering the questions myself without the acquiescence of the artist. Just in case, if she is a holy sister, I pray she doesn't sue me. However, I want to live dangerously on the edge of copyright infringements but think here's an artist worthy of my being guillotined since I deal with a French citizen and for the sake of keeping Vayavya harmless I take upon myself the whole responsibility of this article. Pascale Baud of France is an art teacher and a practitioner of her craft by profession in the region of Paris. The selected works represent her sensitive draftsmanship guided by the subconscious movements of the pen during her Alfa-state pre-sleep period that are based on subsequent conscious analysis of her dreams and free-association of the subconscious. Her craftsmanship extends into the making of books of her artwork; not only as a compilation of her art and thoughts but also explaining the process itself page by page that becomes its own art. Alex Nodopaka: Ms. Pascale Baud, I sense you gave me a silent OK nod. I sense your head bobbing back and forth and with my knowledge of sign language I'll interpret your answers the way I see fit since it is also the product of my imagination and your ethereal presence. So, thank you for your gracious acceptance of this interview with Vayavya. I am eager to expose your artistry to no less than a billion of our citizens eager to know what goes on in your part of France but especially your mind. I understand you live on the outskirts of Paris, which by the way is just one of my preferred 1001 French cities. Pascale Baud: Yes, I live in a quaint location not far from Paris. It is quiet here and I have much more privacy. AN: By the way I admire your vast practice of the arts and their contents besides the traditional visual you also do videos and what I call stitching. I specifically remark on how you package and mail your customers. I love the stitched hand made envelopes and you extending that stitch into some of the artwork itself. PB: I am glad you remarked on that. Yes, every step becomes an artistic process, even postcard made up of scrap cardboard. NOTE FROM PASCALE TO ALEX 
AN: Somewhere I read this phrase by you, "My writings are shelters". Would you expand on it?
PB: My writings are shelters. The ones that are voluntarily linear and those of almost indecipherable nature like in"Notebooks" and "Twists" those that can be forgotten in a corner of a page, words daubed with blows of angry tube, words carefully photographed and enlarged, like those in "Hyperbleues". AN: How do you feel about your privacy invasion? I mean to the extent of exposing it the way Julian Assange did and Edward Snowden? PB: Well, it depends on the circumstances. For instance let's take this interview. In effect it is not taking place, has never occurred. You may be asking questions but in effect it is not me answering them. It is your own soliloquy which is an art form in itself. So it really doesn't matter, it is like reading some fantasy stories in gossip magazines. They are fictive. AN: Well, isn't odd that we'll start with your series Camouflage. In a way it is related to the very preceding dialog. Everything in life is a facade or a camouflage as you so well stated. Please tell us in detail your process. PB: Following are some examples of the work we spoke about with brief annotations on the process. Camouflage DOODLE #1 21x30 cm
ORIGINAL drawing China ink OUTSIDER ART - P. BAUD
Item specifics "What a mess in there!"* (The French use the word 'bordel' to say that!) Type: Ink/rec paper Theme: intimate personal card-neurons and cells Period: XXth century and contemporary Genre: recycled paper, Signed Surréalismomisme Always with my need to recycle that includes old drawings, here's a new small series: Having regained only 3 sheets of handwritten text in white ink from 1992, I have gradually hidden the text of the first page, under drawings, symbols in white ink pen + Staedler black pigment liner 0.2 + symbols and question (transfer lettering Mecanorma) Recycled dark gray with fiber more or less visible Format: A4: 21 x 29 7 cm. Camouflage DOODLE #3 21x30 cm
Item specifics
Ink / paper rec - Signed original single Theme: intimate personal card - neurons and cells Period: XXth and contemporary Features: recycled paper, Signed, Surréalismomisme Authenticity: Original sold by the artist "Mental KO? Or beautiful [...] as the chance meeting on a dissecting table of a sewing machine and an umbrella" (quote in Lautréamont - Les Chants de Maldoror (Chant VI, § 1) Having regained with only 3 sheets of handwritten text in white ink from 1992, I concealed gradually make the third sheet under drawings, symbols in white ink pen + Staedler black pigment liner 0.2 + semicolon (transfer lettering Mecanorma) + scraping parts of the writing in white ink texts. I folded the sheet because I wondered if I was not going to make a book page... but this fold is not visible in this type of paper. Recycled paper with dark gray more or less visible fibers. Format: A4: 21 x 29.7 cm. Handwritten certificate of authenticity on the back of my hand drawing. White Ideas #8 22x 26 cm 
Drawings of 12 December 2012 to 17 March 2013 Élancourt - Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines
I am very pleased and honored to participate in this exhibition! Rosehip - FALDAC is a nonprofit organization whose purpose is to ensure the promotion of contemporary art outside the current dominant mode, focusing on original and genuine creative approaches. Relationship with my DP - "Small Drawings Morons ", these formats are passages in" large format" and other media that the card in bristol. Add to this the cycle "recycling" makes me recycle all my old drawings and paintings. Here for the No. 8 February 13th 2013 = A former oil pastel drawing was covered with acrylic glossy black and matt, the brush strokes are visible, and some reliefs and strokes cutters. On this black and irregular support, I draw and write with pen and white ink. The "gaps" areas where the brush filed irregularly black paint are surrounded, separated by small symbols. The texts are readable but a magnifying glass is probably necessary. This text is to be taken as an exercise in concentration, I think about a new book project " Grifferatures " and my thoughts become handwritten spirals. This type of work is particularly difficult to photograph. Especially when there has gloss and matte effects due to different acrylics. See different photos with different lighting. Item specifics Acrylic on Watercolor Paper 280 g/m2 Format: 21.8 x 25.7 cm - intersected non-standard Certificate of Authenticity manuscript of my hand on the back of the drawing format. White Ideas #9 14x 17 cm 
Associated with my DP - "Small Drawings Morons", these formats are passages in" large format" and other media that the card in Bristol. Add to this the cycle "recycling" makes me recycle all my old drawings and paintings. Here for the No. 8, February 13th 2013. A former oil pastel drawing was covered with acrylic glossy black and matt, the brush strokes are visible and some reliefs and strokes cutters. On this black and irregular support, I draw and write with pen and white ink. The " gaps ", areas where the brush filed irregularly black paint are surrounded , separated by small symbols. The texts are readable but a magnifying glass is probably necessary. This text is to be taken as an exercise in concentration, I think about a new book project "Grifferatures" and my thoughts become handwritten spirals. This type of work is particularly difficult to photograph. Especially when there has gloss and matte effects due to different acrylics. See different photos with different lighting. Acrylic on Watercolor Paper 280 g/m2
Format: 21.8 x 25.7 cm - intersected non-standard Certificate of Authenticity manuscript of my hand on the back of the drawing format. White Ideas #11 24x32 cm 
Relationship with my DP - "Small Drawings Morons", these formats are passages in "large format" and other media that the card in bristol. Added to this is the cycle "recycling" makes me recycle all my old drawings and paintings. Here for the No. 11 (February 22, 2013) = Something a bit special: This drawing even if it was designed "individually" is part of a set of six drawings, in which I work. Each can be presented in an independently or together two by two or three by three or all six formats. The other five formats are underway.
Item specifics Canson-300g watercolor paper painted with acrylic matt black. On this black and irregular support, I draw and write with pen and white ink. The "gaps" (areas where the brush filed irregularly black paint) are surrounded, separated by small symbols. The texts are readable but a magnifying glass is probably necessary. This text is to be taken as an exercise in concentration, but not only. In it I describe the dream that night. This work is particularly difficult to take, photo. Shown here on a black sheet, Acrylic on Watercolor Paper 300 g/m2 Format: 24 x 32 cm Handwritten certificate of authenticity on the back of my hand drawing. White Ideas #12 24x32 cm 
Relationship with my DP - "Small Drawings Morons", these formats are passages in "large format" and other media that the card in bristol. Added to this is the cycle "recycling" makes me recycle all my old drawings and paintings. Here for the # 12 = Something a bit special: This drawing even if it was designed "individually" is part of a set of six drawings, in which I work. Each can be presented in an independently or together two by two or three by three or all six formats.
Item specifics 4 other formats are in progress. Canson Paper - Watercolor 300g Wallpaper acrylic matt black. On this black and irregular support, I draw and write with pen and white ink. The "gaps" (areas where the brush filed irregularly black paint) are surrounded, separated by small symbols. The texts are readable but a magnifying glass is probably necessary. This text is to be taken as an exercise in concentration, but not only. In it I describe the dream that night. This work is particularly difficult to photograph. Taken here in wide daylight. Item specifics Acrylic on Watercolor Paper 300 g/m2. Format: 24 x 32 cm. Certificate of Authenticity handwritten on the back of the drawing. AN: This has been a marvelous experience meeting you and would you please satisfy my curiosity? Human beings have always collected and surrounded themselves with artifacts, what have you been collecting? PB: I have so little space in my home and I am against materialistic pursuits but I love on my travels to collect the legs of dead flies, haha! But seriously I collect scrawls and itsy bitty bits of nothings. Thus I went to the books "K7" and again in books, tears of pages and finally to the "geology". It is with them that I started to show their day to day stratification through the photography. It is with them that I placed my first images on the Internet since photography has taken a central role in the way I work. Witness photography, photography observation, staged photography, photographic writings! AN: What is the common thread that unites your work? PB: What is the common point between my Autopsies my DDA, my Secret Postcards, my IDB- DF, my Hyperbleues my K7, Open Red, my scriptures, my geology Daily, my Brownian Landscapes Landscapes Pedestrian and now my? This is not a reassuring stylistic element, or even a theme. It is a process. For me it is not the style that defines my work. I say my work and not my artwork . And to a collector, I understand it can be confusing. What is that I do that I can be recognized as a signature and be recognized for it? There are obsessions underlying all my research. These obsessions are for example about recycling, it is a variety of materials with my K7 or just my old drawings with my ideas White Double Face (IDB -DF) or the rinds of Time, there is also above all the need for a reflective look at what I'm trying to produce and therefore some form of formal abyss, through pictures as in Open Red, the daily geology, Non- Drawings of the day. There is the need to enclose, to identify or to collect the little things and even writing, because if I use the text, it is visible but mostly defaced as in geology daily, the Secret Postcards, the autopsies. There is this urge to mark the passing of time. It is in this work of "marking time" that many works' remote appearance resonates, the important thing is to identify, underline, mark the time by all technical means of drawings, collages, objects, pictures and intellectual symbolic conceptual thoughts. Yet there is work beyond the "frame", it is the DDA. And the Little Moronesque Drawings are a recreation, a snub to all my obsessions and I thus close the loop. Because in this series of work there especially are early beginnings but no endings. AN: Pascale, as an example for our readers, would you take us on one of your suburban adventures? PB: Sure, here's an example of finding something and making it into something it was not. Sometime ago I went on a walk and found two used decks of cards scattered in a suburban street. Back home, I washed them with plenty of water and detergent. Rubbing vigorously, the colors eventually disappeared in places. After a thorough drying I stashed them in the bottom of a drawer. Upon a Spring cleaning I 'rediscovered' them and decided to do something with them. A deck of ACEO art cards. 
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