Laurence Nicolet
BIOGRAPHY
“Dare to become what you are.
Don’t get off cheaply.
There are great possibilities in every being.
Convince yourself of your strength and your youth.
Tell yourself ceaselessly, It’s up to me.”
André Gide, in Fruits of the Earth
This quote from André Gide has been echoing in my thoughts ever since my teenage years.
For a very long time I lacked the courage to express my feelings and be myself. I ambled along my path of life as a wife and mother until one day sickness caught up with me. It led me to the awareness of how our bodies express and feel our disappointments, fears, and pain in a very harsh and brutal way. I don’t reject my upbringing, but I needed to take action in order to really become ‘Laurence’!
Since childhood I have been attracted by nature, by spiritual experiences, and by manual activities. In 2013 a friend invited me to take part in a workshop on “discovering sculpture” and I felt fulfilled and overflowing with well-being and love. I studied for a few years at Atelier Ginab (see https://www.ginab.ch/) and then decided to go it alone. My husband built me a small workshop in our garden and for ten years now I have been exercising my talents as an amateur sculptress.
I was born in Tramelan, in the Jura hills of Bern canton, Switzerland. I was married in 1995 and we now have two adult children. I work part-time as a commercial assistant and so have free time for my passion.
Artistic approach
As a great lover of Native American and Scandinavian cultures, I am buoyed up by this conquering, warrior energy that helps me flourish in my art.
To sculpt is to express one’s emotions freely and lovingly, without judgement. In my artistic world I escape unbound; endless time slows down and stops. The stone and I work together, unrestrained, silently, in doubt or in joy, in disappointment or in happiness. The result is just an expression. When I’m sculpting, I’m free, flying in a world without clouds, breathing fresh air. Sculpting without restraint gives a great feeling of well-being!
At the same time, things are not so simple, for the stone is hard and has its flaws. If it doesn’t want to receive my energy, it breaks. Each piece of work is a challenge and the result is full of love and gratitude.
It’s the stone that chooses how it wishes to be transformed. Often when I work I’m expressing things from a recent experience. For example, after visiting the Fagradalsfjall Volcano, I brought back all the Icelandic trolls that now watch over me in our home. From Canada I brought back First Nations culture and from Costa Rica, spheres.
I sculpt according to an image or object that left its mark on me and the outcome is my own truth. I never use machines, because I need to feel the material and touch nature.
My artistic approach comes freely from my experiences.
Exhibitions
Collective exhibition, Atelier Gina B., Nidau 07-09 September 2016
Christmas Craft Market, Villeret 25-26 November 2017
Collective exhibition, Atelier Gina.B , Nidau 24-26 June 2018
Christmas Craft Market, La Ferrière 27 November 2021
Christmas Craft Market, Péry 25-26 November 2022
Christmas Craft Market, Montherod 09-10 December 2022
COPYRIGHT INFORMATION
Re-Visionary symbol: I leave my work free of copyright so that it can be shared among people who wish to reproduce it in the spirit of the Collective, as long as they indicate me as author.
Copyright symbol: I am the copyright holder of my own works: my work cannot be reproduced, except by the Re-Visionary Art Collective, under the conditions as indicated above in point 1. Unless I give my written consent.