When you live in Upstate NY you meet cute people. You sit next to them at a crowded restaurant, end up tucked in a dark kitchen with them as a house party swells around you. It's part of the nuanced culture of living in the Hudson Valley---then as quickly as you met them---often times, they disappear.
Luckily for me, after I met Damien at a party I was hosting, our paths continued to cross, and now we have become friends. Born in the French countryside, then residing in Lyon and later Paris, Daminen now lives between NYC and Upstate – where we met. I became familiar with his work after we met, so I was already charmed by him as a human – the accent, the glasses, the very funny wit. He checks all the friend boxes for me. But after I saw his beautiful work, candid and often episodic sketches capturing everything from everyday life to great events - I knew I wanted to collaborate with him on a small project for IB.
MEET DAMIEN.
Damien, my first question is a simple three-way!
1. Where are you from?
2. Where would you say you actually live?
3. Where are you really jonesing to visit?
1. I’m from a small village in France, right at the border with Switzerland.
2. Upstate between Hudson and Hillsdale, behind the diner.
3. So many destinations! Scandinavia, Peru, Japan, Morocco… I’d love to see some of the US National Parks before they’re sold and destroyed.
Your sketches and your artwork, capture so vividly its subjects. The images you create make the viewer feel like they are there with you on a park bench---along for the ride. Where do you find the most inspiration for sketching? Where do you like to be when creating if you have your choice?
I really enjoy observing and sketching on the go, but I love being in my studio with all of my crayons and pencils. I find a lot of joy in playing with colors.
You grew up in the mountains, and I also grew up very rurally —Then Lyon, then Paris and now New York and upstate. I too have made the jump from big cities to small town living again. In all the diverse places you have lived that's a lot of landscape, a lot of light, a lot of noise levels. How much do you think the physical environment you grew up in actually shaped your POV? Is the mountain kid still in there somewhere--or is he all grown up into a city boy now---who cameos in upstate?
Living in cities is absolutely mind opening. The museums, the diversity, the food... Moving also enabled me to reinvent myself, grow and shed my old skin. Having so many options in cities can help you decide who you want to become. I feel much more centered now and crave the company of trees and true friends.
Who is your dream client? Or what is your dream project?
I’d love to be my own client, in the sense that I’d love to commit to my art practice and my well-being as much as I do for clients’ commissions. I’m trying to shape my whole life as an art project, an ongoing practice. Some of it is fairly easy and low stakes : make a good dinner, light a candle. Sometimes I approach hanging the laundry on the line as an installation. My dream projects would be tied to that vision: designing my own objects, and collaborations with skilled artisans and manufactures.
A lot of your sketches that I marked as favorites are your fashion week work, even the street sketches of that event are so good and personal. How did you start working on fashion week events?
The short story is I pitched the idea to a friend-of-a-friend editor at T magazine. The first few times I spent more money than I made, the monetary compensation for this line of work is shamefully low. Since I was sharing my time between New York and Paris (and sometimes London) it was a nice excuse to go see friends and family, and a fantastic way to see special little secrets in each city.
Rose and Thorn time baby! What is your ROSE and what is your THORN about living in upstate New York!?
Being surrounded by nature and good friends. Needing to take a car to go for a nice long walk.
Thank you for coming by our store on one of the busiest saturdays we have seen since Spring started! What were your takeaways after your time in our Hudson store?
The shop is very pretty, I love all the plants and flowers you picked! I also loved the playfulness of the items you sell. That specific afternoon the sun was beaming but there was still a little chill in the air. Most people were still a bit bundled up. They felt like tree buds itching to bloom.
Thank you Damien!
A LOVE LETTER TO HUDSON
When you live in Upstate NY you meet cute people. You sit next to them at a crowded restaurant, end up tucked in a dark kitchen with them as a house party swells around you. It's part of the nuanced culture of living in the Hudson Valley---then as quickly as you met them---often times, they disappear.
Luckily for me, after I met Damien at a party I was hosting, our paths continued to cross, and now we have become friends. Born in the French countryside, then residing in Lyon and later Paris, Daminen now lives between NYC and Upstate – where we met. I became familiar with his work after we met, so I was already charmed by him as a human – the accent, the glasses, the very funny wit. He checks all the friend boxes for me. But after I saw his beautiful work, candid and often episodic sketches capturing everything from everyday life to great events - I knew I wanted to collaborate with him on a small project for IB.
MEET DAMIEN.
Damien, my first question is a simple three-way!
1. Where are you from?
2. Where would you say you actually live?
3. Where are you really jonesing to visit?
1. I’m from a small village in France, right at the border with Switzerland.
2. Upstate between Hudson and Hillsdale, behind the diner.
3. So many destinations! Scandinavia, Peru, Japan, Morocco… I’d love to see some of the US National Parks before they’re sold and destroyed.
Your sketches and your artwork, capture so vividly its subjects. The images you create make the viewer feel like they are there with you on a park bench---along for the ride. Where do you find the most inspiration for sketching? Where do you like to be when creating if you have your choice?
I really enjoy observing and sketching on the go, but I love being in my studio with all of my crayons and pencils. I find a lot of joy in playing with colors.
You grew up in the mountains, and I also grew up very rurally —Then Lyon, then Paris and now New York and upstate. I too have made the jump from big cities to small town living again. In all the diverse places you have lived that's a lot of landscape, a lot of light, a lot of noise levels. How much do you think the physical environment you grew up in actually shaped your POV? Is the mountain kid still in there somewhere--or is he all grown up into a city boy now---who cameos in upstate?
Living in cities is absolutely mind opening. The museums, the diversity, the food... Moving also enabled me to reinvent myself, grow and shed my old skin. Having so many options in cities can help you decide who you want to become. I feel much more centered now and crave the company of trees and true friends.
Who is your dream client? Or what is your dream project?
I’d love to be my own client, in the sense that I’d love to commit to my art practice and my well-being as much as I do for clients’ commissions. I’m trying to shape my whole life as an art project, an ongoing practice. Some of it is fairly easy and low stakes : make a good dinner, light a candle. Sometimes I approach hanging the laundry on the line as an installation. My dream projects would be tied to that vision: designing my own objects, and collaborations with skilled artisans and manufactures.
A lot of your sketches that I marked as favorites are your fashion week work, even the street sketches of that event are so good and personal. How did you start working on fashion week events?
The short story is I pitched the idea to a friend-of-a-friend editor at T magazine. The first few times I spent more money than I made, the monetary compensation for this line of work is shamefully low. Since I was sharing my time between New York and Paris (and sometimes London) it was a nice excuse to go see friends and family, and a fantastic way to see special little secrets in each city.
Rose and Thorn time baby! What is your ROSE and what is your THORN about living in upstate New York!?
Being surrounded by nature and good friends. Needing to take a car to go for a nice long walk.
Thank you for coming by our store on one of the busiest saturdays we have seen since Spring started! What were your takeaways after your time in our Hudson store?
The shop is very pretty, I love all the plants and flowers you picked! I also loved the playfulness of the items you sell. That specific afternoon the sun was beaming but there was still a little chill in the air. Most people were still a bit bundled up. They felt like tree buds itching to bloom.
Thank you Damien!