August 2022, Highway 62 takes me to Palm Spring. It may be the first time I've ventured down this road, but it's all so familiar. This highway in the middle of the Californian desert, the one you see in the movies and have already traveled in your head, symbol of freedom, straight, traffic-free, bordered on both sides by sand and bushes, and whose asphalt gives off that sensation of blur and heat as the sun beats down on it; but above all, the vision of this mountain range in the distance. I'm familiar with the Blue Mountains, yet this is the first time I've set eyes on them... I've often admired their shapes and colors at different times of the day, and studied them to capture their beauty on canvas, but now I see them differently. I feel an urgent need to stop and take a longer look at them, but this is quickly resolved, as the solitude of traffic allows for all kinds of folly. No sooner do I open the car door than a wave of heat sweeps through my body, accustomed to the mild temperature of the air-conditioning. But there's nothing stifling about the sensation; on the contrary, it's almost mystical. The reality of vision is mingled with other sensations that are only perceptible because I'm physically there. In a few seconds, everything becomes clear: I have to paint these sensations. Mixed in with this desire are old desires and the promise I'd made myself to come one day and live at least a year on American soil.

I know America, as a child of the 80s, and I've lived there vicariously through its TV series, films, comics and music. Its culture is my own, and my adolescence led me to the alternative cultures of skateboarding and graffiti. I traveled a lot and even worked as a flesh pusher on the Atlantic City boardwalk two summers in a row, but it never managed to fill the void of unfulfilled desire. So I paint it, I coat it on linen, I give it these shapes, but on this day in August 2022 I know that if I want to go further in my painting I'll have to be able to experience my American sensations beyond my screen, I'll have to see and feel. A one-year residency immediately popped into my head. To make it easier, I decided to set it up on my own, with the help of partners and sponsors. The location would be Houston, because what could be more American than Texas? The format - an American way of life. The duration will be one year, from August 2025 to August 2026, with 2 on-site exhibitions of works produced during the year of study. If this adventure appeals to you as much as it does to me, and if you'd like to join us, please contact me.