Dominique Carrié.................................

Dominique Carrié was born on July 29th 1960 in Marseille, France. Dominique got her art School Diploma at the "Beaux Arts" in 1987. From 1989 to 1999, she had been running an art-therapy workshop in a psychiatry service. She is now working full time on her artwork and lives in Marseilles with her partner and her two sons.

I found my way when I was seven, as I discovered Leonardo Da Vinci on a broadcast. I decided to be a painter!

Da Vinci was left handed, and his multi-faceted artwork has always been surrounded by mystery. All this made me feel like he was one of my relative, like a grandfather.
Then started the practice.

1970
First self-portrait with my first bra. First awareness. 'I'm inside a bubble and I observe my surroundings: who am I?...' I try to find out through my body, I examine every inch of it to get the answer.

1980
Beaux-Arts, confrontation with the nude model, portraits, the etching studio, its large chairs sometimes empty or occupied with human beings and artefacts. I discover artists like David Hockney, Jime Dine, Odilon Redon, Francis Bacon, Delacroix, Matisse.

Black and white etchings. Pastels.

1990
An attempt to evade, the outside, the landscapes. Cezanne, another good grandfather.

Oil painting.

1997
Naked body, more and more naked, the flesh, the muscles, the amazement, the exterior, the strangeness of being, discovering the marks of pain and beauty, reveal the invisible, the strong and the fragile.  Rembrandt, Lucian Freud, Kokoska, Soutine.

1998-2000
Purchase of a studio . Keep working on the body, nude, male, life size and painted from life. Why? Male nudity and its feminine side, no tie but a sex, no suit but shoulders, no shiny shoes but large feet. The liberation of man will go through the acknowledgement of its fragility. The feminine nude aesthetic had its golden age. Women got themselves a mirror. It is fair game that the real male ,without contrivance, comes to life at last, through the eyes of a woman.

'The man who models for me knows that he's taking risks. But we are equals, he gets undressed and I have to face a new mystery, a new land to explore.'

One being naked doesn't mean one is going to reveal oneself. With some models it is a same fight, with others it is a total communion where love and sensuality reign. 'I see painting as an act of love, a complete involvement. The passion I have for the human being is an overwhelming instinct.'

Emotions can be so intense. As the model vanishes, the painting of flowers takes place to heal the desire of making this moment last forever. Flower representations are therefore closely related to the portraits, in a diptyque. This alternative, more abstract research is extending the intensity of the relation with the model. It is an aesthetic approach, a personnal counterpoint to the emotions shared with the model during the pose sessions.

Decembrer 1999- January 2000
Exhibition of 'Hommes Nus, Fleurs' in Marseille. Lot of feedback! Positive reactions, and violent ones: several long-living taboos and concealed puritanism still rule on the Méditerranée. People, especially men, still have some problems appreciating the male nude.

'My research goes on. Next challenge: couple in all its shapes'.