THE INVISIBLE THREAD OF ORIGINS
Mineral memory, living memory.
Over time, my work as an artist has moved towards an unexpected but deeply personal convergence: that of visual art and the world of mineralogy.
This is not an intellectual choice, but rather the result of a slow return, an intimate archaeology, where the artistic gesture awakens a buried memory.
Childhood and inspiration.
Since childhood, minerals have held a real fascination for me. Quartz, desert roses, crystallized sulfur, pyrite, hematite… each treasure shines like fragments of a lost world, bearing a mystery that my admiration sublimates. Over the years, this collection has been dispersed, leaving behind a void. At the same time, my passion has slowly faded, and the mineral world has become a memory.
Yet my connection with nature remains intact. I draw inspiration from living things, the lines of plants, the beauty of animals, the breath of organic matter. These shapes and textures nourish my creativity, until the mineral world knocks on my door once again. No longer as a nostalgic memory, but as something obvious: a living source of poetry and beauty that once again guides my artistic work.
Origins and lineage.
My connection to minerals goes beyond aesthetics or science: it is deeply existential.
It is part of a family history in which nature plays a central role. My maternal grandfather was a botanist, my grandmother a florist, and my paternal great-grandfather a forester. My father, an architect with a passion for wood, passed on to me his love of raw materials and techniques that are both modern and artisanal. The formative experiences of my childhood—a family friend who introduced me to mineralogy, the treasures I collected and contemplated—shaped my relationship with materials and beauty. Even my name, Minery, seems like an invitation to explore, dig, and extract: a poetic echo of the artistic practice itself, a form of exploration of meaning.
Every place I visit feeds this sensitivity. Paris, Strasbourg, Nancy, Colmar, Berlin, Munich. Botanical gardens, forests, alpine lakes, museums and mining tunnels, Art Nouveau or works by Bartholdi, everything resonates with my family memories and the history of life. Nature becomes a refuge and an outlet, an extension of vital energy.
The gesture.
Today, my work explores the fertile tension between minerals and plants. In the field, I collect specimens in the Vosges or the Black Forest, observing their geology and context. The act of collecting is respectful: understanding before transforming. Each crystal reveals its slow metamorphosis, shaped by weather, pressure, and chemical interactions. By cleaning and revealing it, I perform a precise ritual.
This observation feeds into my work—acrylic paintings and other media—where I seek not reproduction, but resonance. The mineral structure dialogues with the plant, revealing a common language, a continuity between the kingdoms. The mineral nourishes the plant, which nourishes the animal, and so on. From rock to soul, I try to inhabit the world with awareness, sensitivity, and gratitude, bringing out the beauty and breath of life in every artistic gesture.