In Conversation With 🖌️ Olivier Bonhomme

Decadent: Hi Olivier, and welcome to Decadent!  We’re so happy to feature you on the site. Your work is so striking. How did you develop such a bold and unique style?

Olivier: Hi! Thank you for having me! Well, I can’t precisely know how a style is made, I think it’s a mix between hard work and constantly looking for references. I believe that when you are passionate about this profession, you dive into it from the start. We live drawing, we eat drawing, we sleep drawing, we love drawing… However, I also think that developing your own style requires being aware of the language you adopt to tell stories. In this sense, the figurative style and the clear line seemed to me to be effective tools for directly capturing the viewer’s attention.

Decadent: What were your earliest influences?

Olivier: My first influences were European comics. I remember immersing myself for hours reading Tintin which marked my childhood. The economy of the line, the precision of the drawing and the colors and the efficiency of the Hergé’s staging made me live epic stories in which my eye was formed. Then, I discovered more contemporary authors of the 20th century like Moebius, Boucq, DeCrecy, etc… And in parallel I began to discover the history of Art and its great movements. Magritte’s surrealism and Hopper’s contemplation echoed the atmospheres I could find in graphic novels.

Decadent: Tell us a little bit about your story. What were the most inspiring moments of your life?

Olivier: Well, I was born and raised in the southern french city of Montpellier. Growing up in a small village close to vineyards nearby. I don’t know why, but I early felt caught by the power of expression and creation. I found its most efficient form in jazz and drawing as far as I can remember. Then came the time of studies and it was kind of a struggle to make a choice between music and visual arts… After many years of hesitation, I’ve decided to keep both and never to let down any passion. It’s a kind of a personal rule now ! I often wondered how a little kid from south of France could be so attracted by the American culture. I felt this connection, don’t know why… It’s how I went to the US for the first time when I was 20 and it was a real discovery for me. Been there multiple times after that. Being in New York, most fascinating city, which represented a kind of an archetype in my mind. And of course the vibrant energy and pulse that you can feel with music, heights and people when you see it for the first time. 

Decadent: How big a part does music play in your life? There’s something musical about your art. Tell us about that.

Olivier: Music has always been part of my visual work and vice versa. In fact, I believe that the freedom to create forms requires certain constraints, a vocabulary and a grammar. This is common to jazz and drawing. Learn harmony on one side and proportions on the other. It really is like learning a foreign language. However, jazz is above all a form of freedom and contestation, and you have to know how to get rid of academic rules to express your full potential. I remember having read a text that greatly influenced me, the Miles Davis’s Kind of Blue album preface by Bill Evans, in which he compares the act of the jazz musician to that of the Japanese calligrapher with his brush. One gesture, one movement, no turning back. Assume the error and deliver the most sincere expression possible. In a way, music is the opposite of drawing, it does not refer to same senses. But if you look forward a little bit into synesthesia, you can then begin to express sounds with colors and lines with rhythms… 

Decadent: What inspires you now? What’s happening creatively in the world that delights you?

Olivier: It’s commonplace, but the world is changing. Everything goes very quickly, the influences are numerous, the artistic production is even more so… So somewhere I decide not to follow this frenzy but to let myself be carried along by certain discoveries. I am a wanderer. Sometimes I feel like we’re in a nebula of ever-swirling information, but in this chaos I trust the irresistible force of attraction. The most advanced machine in my opinion in terms of inspiration is our own brain. It allows us to distill our fantasies, our dreams, our visions… It is therefore a permanent curiosity and a certain fascination for the absurd interpretation of our world that allows me to keep the creative impulse. Trusting the imperfect human brain is the most delightful thing. Even if I don’t often remember my dreams, each day is a new door open to reality. A door open to a creative interpretation of the world. 

Decadent: And what pisses you off? 

Olivier: Human stupidity. In all areas. But it is a paradox because the Human is also capable of the best. In fact, what really pisses me off is seeing that we’re on the edge of the abyss and we’re not doing anything for the planet. I sometimes have the impression that the role of an artist is to come down from his “tower”, as Victor Hugo said. How can I act to make myself useful in these crucial times? I often ask if concrete action isn’t more effective than awakening ideas… Feeling powerless sometimes is the most frustrating thing. But it’s a common fear. We’re not powerless, we just don’t know how to use our magic in the right way.

Decadent: Do you think art has the power to change society?

Olivier: Of course! Even if I doubt it in the previous question! The work of press cartoons that I have been doing for several years allows me to be close to reality. In a way, art allows us to look at current events with more distance but also accuracy, and therefore more philosophy. Anyway, rationality is not the answer to everything. Art in all its forms is a good reason to fight to believe in the beauty of the human condition. Society and culture shape artists and artists shape society, it’s a relationship of interdependence and that’s fine like this !

Decadent: We’re called decadent because amongst many definitions it means art free of constraints. What does decadent mean to you?

Olivier: Decadence is for me the expression of a certain shift which is necessary to fight the madness of the World. It is a form of inevitable forward movement which cannot be said to lead to peace or chaos. But the main thing is that this movement exists. Decadence is the most poetic image to express doubt, renewal, invention, inspiration, dream, change… Where have our dreams gone? What will our future be made of? Are we the lost generation? I can’t answer these questions, but I’m willing to define myself as decadent because I know I won’t be part of the old world. Decadence is re-invention.

Decadent: Thank you!