Introducing Notseig

Notseig ? It’s ultra-sensitivity… But, to fully experience the meaning and emotional charge, you must look beyond the aesthetics of his artworks. You must enter his universe and be given a number of keys to understanding them; keys which mainly pertain to the artist’s life and personality.

Therefore, it is with his permission that I will reveal a part of his personal life which is a gateway to grasping the depth and emotional charge of his artworks and to understanding the artist’s “ultra-sensitivity” from which stems the BEAUTY of his creations.

Pierre, his first name, is a survivor, having weathered melancholy, unease and a profound depressed state for which he was hospitalized on a number of occasions. The first years of his life were spent bearing the burden of such emotional distress, going as far as putting himself in harm’s way. With a certain family context, most certainly an innate sensitivity, and with pressures, hardships, neurosis, experiences and life trajectories…”I’ve always been on a knife’s edge, going as far as hitting rock-bottom. Every time, I would close myself up into extreme solitude ; I was subject to a World I wanted to please but that reflected a negative image of myself; without ever being true to myself and always asking myself…why ? What place do I occupy in this World ? Do I belong ?”.

Pierre found refuge in a universe he created and that allowed him to feel ALIVE…A universe made up of video games and music which accentuated and sharpened his extreme sensitivity.

His sensitivity, combined with his solitude, summoned him to create…He tried playing the piano but then set it aside “playing the piano is a one-way love affair that I sabotaged, but on which I haven’t entirely given up on”. He also tried playing the guitar and creating jewelry but without much faith…”both helped clear my thoughts, but that’s all”. He also composed music under the stage name Notseig, but that too dwindled down.

Drawing ? Art ? Of course he thought about it and recalls his first sketches and the pleasure he got from drawing (and from seeing the result), but to go as far as to consider himself an artist ? Unfathomable ! Always lacking self-confidence…”I was broken, sabotaged and belittled by others, and myself.  Pierre wandered in between his wounds and his solitude…He felt that art could be the way to express himself and felt the urge to create but did not dare ; he refused art, and to draw more particularly, which would come to be his medium of choice.

Then one day, he tells me, “I read a book and something clicked. I then reversed the direction of the slope”. ” The title of Thomas Asembourg’s book “Stop being nice, start being real” suggests just that…what did it change for Pierre? Everything…it helped him realize that he had never been true to himself, just a reflection of other people’s desires and projections, but without ever attaining their expectations…the very same reasons he had forbidden himself to draw. He broke the paradigm and decided to pick up paper and pencil. “I remember that sheet of paper…the first line I drew on it was one of the hardest things I have ever done in my life. But, little by little, the lines became easier…”. It was Pierre’s rebirth…Notseig, the Artist, came to be…

From then on, drawing has never left Pierre, and he has continuously improved, making his strokes as true to his emotions as possible…Then, he discovered photography and decided to perfect it with the same desire : to harmonize the fruit of his creations with HIS universe. This led him to dig deeper into imaging and composing : he learned to digitally edit and recompose images, and began creating digital artworks.

Drawing, photography or digital art :  3 very different mediums he used to relay his emotions and/or to narrate his universe. In Notseig, they all unite, resonate and find harmony with the sincerity that drives him and pervades his artworks.

One must understand that Notseig’s artworks stem from either an emotion they translate or the desire to narrate his universe, in order to feel the emotion, regardless of the medium. A universe, fictitious and fantastic, with its share of mysticism, that originates from questioning where his place is in this world.

Hence, the way the conscious and subconscious are linked or the way abstract yields figurative : either his emotion is translated in its sensitive, instant and pure aspect, or in a narrative context.

His drawings ? Some come to life with thoughtless strokes, each stroke guided by the precedent and leading to an abstract form, while others will stem from an intention the artist has in mind and wishes to bring to life on paper, for which the narrative intention is more figurative.

Photography and/or digital art ? The same applies…Photography suffices in itself, to capture a pure emotion, whereupon the artist will stop alongside a road to seize what he sees, mirroring his own emotions or triggering an emotion in him. But when it comes to a narrative desire, the artist works on a composition, the reconstruction of images, leaving photography behind and exploring the technics of digital art. In this manner, he diversifies his medium depending on his intention and his desires, but always driven by the expression of his sensitivity. For him, each artwork has its intense emotional scope.

Pierre created for the sole purpose of doing what he loved, not for the desire of making a living nor owning up to it by submitting it to the public eye…He created for himself, and to let his inner self roam free, determined on “being real”. He began accumulating artworks and gaining self-confidence…Eventually, under the name Notseig, he DARED show his artworks via social media. Quickly, they gathered “likes” and received flattering comments…So, he created his own website and began selling his first artworks…The artist in him, long repressed, began owning up to it and exhibiting his works.

“I had never accepted owning up to being an artist : now I’m taking MY spot”. He contacted a gallery in Limoge, where he lives, and began exhibiting his artworks. From there, he contacted Art Traffik…and we fell in love, with the artist and his work…which makes us all the more thrilled to be able to represent him, with the firm intention of making known, as widely as possible, his artworks and his Talent, so that he may reap the success he deserves. Enter Notseig’s universe and be taken away by it; be moved by it and by his ultra sensitivity, by letting your own express itself…now that you have the keys to understanding his work, you may even feel shivers down your spine…