Le Renouveau n°140
No one can live without culture nor beauty
Le Renouveau – June 2020
Natacha & Éric — beauty seekers
When you head to La Selle-sur-le-Bied you are not far from the Yonne or Seine-et-Marne — and not far from Ferrières-en-Gâtinais either, more often visited by the people of the Loiret. And yet, in this small village, lives a couple passionate about art, sculpture and glass. Natacha Mondon and Éric Pierre have set up their studio on the village square.
From the age of 15, Natacha discovered her love of sculpture. It was like a vocation. “I felt as if called!” So, very quickly, at 20, she approached the Fondation de la Vocation to obtain a grant to undertake sculpture studies. Her path was now set.
A few years later she meets Éric Pierre, who had studied cinema, sculpture and interior decoration. The meeting was decisive: they joined forces, to create sculptures of course, but above all to create lights worked in glass. They first lived in the Paris region, and for about ten years now have settled in the countryside, in calm and silence.
This couple transcends themselves in imagining and creating unique works. The diversity of techniques they use is unmatched. Working glass in all its forms and aspects, sculpting it, turns each piece into a symbol of beauty.
Glass is not the only material they work, because their artistic curiosity has pushed Natacha and Éric to work every material that inspires them: from clay to glass, to bronze and even to chocolate.
They work for historic monuments but above all for churches and monasteries. “Immersing yourself in the place, dwelling there for a long time to already imagine your work with the explicit commission of the patron — that is essential and necessary,” they both say. So at each place, an original and unique work. They continue: “every project is unique, you never know what you are going to do — it’s the spirit of the place that will guide us and initiate the project.”
Called everywhere in France, and even abroad, it is always the same concern for beauty and light that guides them. Their works are many, and each time they work with the same enthusiasm, the same passion for new and beautiful places.
Their studio is open to all. They are happy to welcome visitors. Everyone can come in to look at and admire their work. “It happens here and now, nowhere else.” And I will close with Natacha’s phrase: “beauty must be accessible to all.”
So if this summer, after this confinement that prevented us from really living the spring, you have the desire to look at life differently, you can visit Natacha and Éric’s studio. You will come away filled with beauty and inner light.
— © Monique Martinet, Le Renouveau n°140, June 2020