Noël Hemon “The artist is a guardian of time”.

Ve devoted an exhibition to the theme of time a few months ago. Why did you do this?
Time is a subject that fascinates me both as a human being and as an artist. It’s a great theme to reflect on in relation to the universe, its creation and the imprint of mankind. I believe that time is an enemy for human beings, because it limits things, frames them and gives them a start and end date. No matter what tasks need to be accomplished, Man will always be bound to finish on time, even if he has to lower his standards of quality. The pressure on the human being therefore does not allow him to be himself and live in symbiosis with nature or everything around him. It’s this reflection of man and the effects of time that I’m primarily seeking to convey in my work. I try to make the public aware of what surrounds them.

You see the artist as a guardian of time. What do you mean by this?
The artist is a guardian of time through the works he creates at different times in his life. He observes everything around him and translates it into artistic form through various media. He is there to mark time, to freeze moments. As a painter, I like to sit high up on my cloud, observing the earth with both tender and critical eyes. I spend time in nature. Hiking, biking or skiing help me in this quest.

What role does time play in the creation of a painting? How much of your work is spontaneous?
When it comes to painting, taking your time is essential. The subject is thought through, the drawing and composition worked out to satisfaction, the harmony studied. It’s not unusual for me to make preliminary sketches before deciding on the final canvas. I never just throw myself at a canvas at random. Painting, however, requires the artist to connect as fully as possible with the work in order to be 100% spontaneous.

In your work, what has taken you the longest to understand?
Quite simply, picking up a paintbrush, even if only for 10 minutes, is always worth it when it comes to putting your ideas on canvas.

How do you view your work, past and present?
When I look back, I realize that my work depicts a world that becomes more fragile, more unstructured as time goes by. If I look back, I realize how much I’ve learned. Today, thanks to my experience and the new tools and techniques I use, my art is evolving towards more unstructured materials. Why an evolution towards destructuring? Quite simply because, freed from the limits imposed by society, the works I propose are part of a world without limits.

And what about tomorrow? What are your plans for the future?
I’m continuing my work on destructuring through various media. The acceleration of the notion of time as a result of modernity has destructured nature, which is losing ground, and destructured human beings, making them more aggressive, consumed by technology, stress and hysteria. To illustrate this reflection on the destructuring of matter by human beings in favor of the acceleration of technology, I’m going to go beyond painting and express myself through sculpture. The approach is the same: whatever my work, I seek to raise people’s awareness of the subject of nature.