Mado - Sun in our souls

Spring is supposed to begin today, where are You ? The weather was so nice last weeks (pure spring weather) and now it’s getting colder. Those obvious climate zig-zag have put environment on the front stage of “problems to be solved” raised during the French presidential campaign. Curious to see if it’ll stop in a dead-end like the poor fate of campaign promises, poor planet…


Ok, even if the weather is sad, presidential campaign is to !*#*%#!, you know what ? :o)
Rays of light have many many ways to reach our souls, and when it overflows, I like to share it here, so today : a great painter and person named Madeleine Ossikian.

Amongst 10 over tiny incidents that can’t be described exhaustively here, she made my day yesterday, thanks Mado! We met with her cousin in a little restaurant, called “chez Marianne” but who offered oriental food (it’s hard to sound more frenchy, so little surprise), in the middle of a little charming district of Paris near Hotel de Ville, crossed by lots of very little “typique” streets like Archives, Sainte Croix Bretonnière, Rosiers, and Hospitalières Saint Gervais. Cute and also funny to read so much “saints” in this particular district so close of more “rascal” concerns.

To sum up, Mado is the wife of Gas, quite clear isn’t it ?! ;o)
Explanations : I once have talked about Gas few months ago (november post "Magic Gas"). It’s an excellent bluesman that my brother discovered and met in the middle of nowhere (St Amand Montrond, Cher). I ended writing about him in the Armenian magazine I sometimes collaborate, after having met him and enjoyed one of his concert in Lyon. An excellent meet. At that time Gas had talked about the work of his wife, that would be exposed soon at Lyon, so one of my Lyon’s colleague covered the exposition that is now taking place, Fondation Bullukian, on place Bellecour.

Place Bellecour is one of the most famous place in Lyon, classified in UNESCO’s World Heritage
This is also where the recent memorial to Armenian genocide has been vandalized last year and been the subject of brutal demonstrations of clearly identified racist Turkish group (“loup gris” or grey wolves). And it’s the kind of event that encouraged politics to vote for punishing negationism… Here’s an album where you can see photos of the place and one pic of the memorial.

Back to Paris: I was still in contact with Gas but never met Mado. She simply contacted me cause she’s on Paris this week and proposed this meeting. So done. It’s a really nice person, interesting, simple, open-minded, kind, and a funny adventurous. We had a nice moment together talking about everything and anything in the same time, openly. I felt the same simplicity and sincerity of her husband in her way to be. Something close to innocence in their artistic work, in spite of what might induce real life constraints. In the mean time, they both have a deep link with their Armenian roots. I’ve already explained if for Gas, but for Mado it’s obvious in her work, the Armenian identity is here, in an original & refreshing way.
Here's one of her pieces, titled La porte du paradis (the door of heaven)





So, it was a warm ray of light, really stimulating, that I appreciated even more because of how it arrived : from Saint-Amand Montrond in the Cher, passing by Toussieu near Lyon in Rhônes-Alpes and beginning in Saint Medard en Forez (oh those strange French names of towns), to Paris finally, and maybe more…
Ourgè our ?!

Here’s a webpage presenting the exposition of Lyon, and another page where we see more of her work… Enjoy !




ps : a concrete ray of light is passing through the clouds, Run Sun, run ! lol