La Vie Creative

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Taki Watanga was conceived on the Paris Metro. A simple conversation that rapidly turned into a dare. “Be brave and take hold of your obvious and quite frankly unique talents”.

In 2019 Mark Hedges, the director of London’s West End production of Phantom of the
Opera, presented a challenge to Chrissy: develop a drag queen persona for cabaret and burlesque shows. She seized the opportunity and immediately began collaborating with
him to create her alter ego: Taki Watanga.

To create this unique personality Chrissy would draw on her own fascinating life as a performer, a curious seeker, experienced yoga practitioner and adventures.... Growing up in the aftermath of the civil rights movement, the Atlanta native was immersed in the soulful oratory of the African-American community.

Melding that experience with her Scottish and Native American ancestry contributed to her unique cross-cultural perspective. While still a teenager Chrissy earned the opportunity to perform with Robert Shaw and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra in Leonard Bernstein’s Mass.Soon after she moved to Nashville, Tennessee where she was a singer and dancer for

Opryland U.S.A. During her residency in the Home of County Music’, she recorded background vocals for Grammy-winning country artists Reba McEntire, Tammy Wynette.

Through her diverse career, Chrissy continues to delight audiences with her unfettered wit, expressive playfulness, and exuberant personality.

https://www.instagram.com/taki_watanga/
https://www.facebook.com/christiineflowers.actricevoicetalent/
http://www.christine-flowers.com/main.php?ca=10&p=12&tt=teaching&lang=en
https://www.linkedin.com/in/christine-flowers-25073311/?originalSubdomain=fr
https://yogaflowerparis.com/

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I’m Julia of Bird in France, the little art business I started in 2017 when I first moved to France and realized it would be pretty much impossible to pursue my work with horses here as a foreigner. ( copious red tape etc)

The name came about as a play on my surname, ‘Bird’ which has given people lots of laughs over the years, so I thought it was time it came in useful!

I wanted to be an artist when I was still at school but at A level was pushed to do ‘academic’ subjects and pressured to drop the art, so all these decades later as I contemplated my crazy move to France, I decided it was now or never to have a go.

I love old things, the idea of something vintage having another life and fell in love with the beautiful old Breton slates, that have been used on roofs here for centuries.

Friends commissioned me to create a slate house sign for them and I started experimenting with paint and different techniques to see what would work best as it’s a rough, uneven material to work on and also quite dark.

I’m a country girl at heart and although I have lived in London, I’ve always been drawn back to the countryside and wild places, where I can observe nature close up and feel the earth under my feet.

The countryside where I live in Brittany inspires my art daily, from the birds that visit my garden to the wildflowers in my fields and the resident hedgehog, although I’m not too keen on the viper that appeared near my car in the driveway last year!!

I’ve been surrounded by animals most of my life, in the mid-seventies my parents attempted to become ‘self-sufficient’ like a popular tv series of the time called ‘ the good life’ so there was always a dog and a few cats curled up in front of the aga, so it seemed a natural progression when people started to ask me if I could paint their pets.

Pet portrait commissions have become another regular part of my work and I love creating pieces of treasured family members with paws.

I like to combine my love of repurposing and recycling old things with my pet portraits, so a lovely trio of dogs I did for a client in the UK is painted on a beautiful piece of old chestnut wood that came out of an old Breton farmhouse and is at least 200 years old.

I have a Facebook page that shows my work in progress and life here at Bird in France

www.Facebook.com/birdinfranceart

I have a website: www.birdinfrance.com

& Instagram : @julesjnb

Twitter: @julesandbiz

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I am originally from Scotland, I grew up in England, Spent a few years in Dubai and I have now been in France for 5 years where I have put down some roots and started a family.   I love to experiment with different mediums although have a keen preference for Acrylic on Canvas and Photography. My work is all about colour as I create bold pieces and really explore contrast, textures and blending in the world as I see it.  I enjoy depicting animals, landscapes or patterns influenced by my extensive travels. My creative background has heavily influenced my style and methods of expression. I studied Education and Performing Arts at Bath Spa University. I am an ex early years teacher and I still very much enjoy passing on my passion to children through art workshops introducing children to the arts. I’ve also organised and been part of a number of street art festivals in UK and Dubai as well as worked as a set and costume designer for several theatre productions. Alongside all of this I am also a Published Author and Illustrator of 2 children's books as well as an accomplished Family and Event Photographer published in various magazines and media across Europe and Asia. 

Your Photographer- Paris Yvelines

email: [email protected]

phone: 0612204715

www.lemonbox.fr

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In France children since the 19th century grew up with the stories of Comtesse de Ségur. The tales of Sophie the impish little girl always getting into trouble and trying to learn from her mistakes still shape generations.

Living at the Chateau des Nouettes in Normandy, a gift from her father as her children grew up and left to have their own families. In 1849, at 50 years old Sophie began to write stories for her grandchildren. Each of the stories had a moral and were not always filled with rainbows and butterflies. She used the names of her children and grandchildren in the stories but her most popular was based on her life and shared her name. 

Growing up her mother was horrible. She was often locked in a room for days at a time without any food or water. In public she would be hit and ridiculed and all of that stayed with her and came out on the pages of her stories. 

At first they were just for her family but they were quickly shared with others. Her husband was not the president of the Compagnie des Chemins de Fer de l’Est rail company. Friends with Louis Hachette who also started the very first publishing company in France, he read the stories and wanted to publish them.  Hachette also had a big idea of setting up a newsstand in the Gare de Lyon, the first of its kind in 1852. That little newsstand turned into Relay which is found on four continents and over 1600 train & metro stations, hospitals and airports. 

Hachette published her “new fairy tales” as she named them and sold them in his series of the Pink Library for children ages 6 to 12 that are still published today.  Sophie’s deal with Hachette named her as the author and allowed her the copyright and royalties from all sales, unheard of for a woman at the time and in the following decades. 

Today you can find a bust of the Comtesses de Ségur in the western corner of the Jardin du Luxembourg. Created by Jean Boucher, it was inaugurated in this spot in 1910. 

More info and photos: https://www.claudinehemingway.com/paris-history-avec-a-hemingway-podcast-1
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“Color is the defining element in my work and a common thread throughout my portfolio. I create abstract patterns using line and color, or dramatic portraits with extreme hues. Both drawing and painting are key in my work, and I aim to unite the two in my pieces.”

Anna Gillis was born and raised in the U.S. in California. She attended Lehigh University in Pennsylvania, where she studied Studio Art and Graphic Design. Following college, she moved to New York City where she worked for a fine art gallery. In 2019, she moved to Paris, where she currently lives and works. 

Anna's paintings, drawings and digital artworks are available at www.annagillisart.com. You can also view her work on instagram at @annagillisart. 

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Lala Drona (b. 1988) is a Venezuelan-American painter and videaste, born in Denver, Colorado. After receiving a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Colorado, Lala Drona has since published and exhibited her work internationally.  Most recently, her videos and paintings exploring digital spaces and the female gaze, were shown at the Cite des Arts de Paris.  

Her paintings, videos, and writing explore “transitions between the virtual and the real” and “women in the digital world.”  The totality of her artwork contributes to, and exists within a fictional universe and mythology established online and then recontextualized in the physical world through paint on canvas, performance, and sculpture. She is based in Paris, France.

    www.basedonafact.com           www.laladrona.com             Instagram          Facebook           Twitter

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