“Art is everywhere and for everyone.”
Sylvie Pool Avarez shares with Cosmocreole her passion for three-dimensional art and her journey to become the artist that she is today. Sylvie is married and has one daughter- her husband and daughter (and the rest of her family) are extremely encouraging of her artwork, and now that her daughter is independent, she is focusing a lot more of her time towards creating. Prior to embarking on this journey as a full-time artist, she was an editor and mother — doing art on the side. Sylvie believes that anyone can be an artist.
“Art does not only belong to talented artists or to art collectors but also to underprivileged children or the
soldier coming back from war. Art doesn’t have to cost a thing – Clay can be made from mud, a stick can be used to draw in the sand, and toy boats can be made out of coconut husks, sticks, and leaves. Art is everywhere and for everyone.
“Growing up with my grandmother’s pottery studio at our house definitely influenced how I view art. Unlike for many other people, art wasn’t something that I first learned in school—it was something that was always around and part of everyday life. My grandmother (others knew her as Madame Thomas) would give me a piece of clay, and she would never tell me how to create anything with it. I would just do, and she would just do, and I learned like that. This exposure instilled in me the belief that the joy of art creation is for everyone.”
Sylvie doesn’t remember exactly when she was first introduced to clay because it was around her from birth – her grandmother had her pottery studio on the ground floor of their house in Bel Air, Seychelles. When she wasn’t at school, she spent time most days of her childhood in the studio with her. According to Sylvie, her grandmother was the most amazing and encouraging teacher and allowed her to learn to create without boundaries, thereby making her own mistakes by pushing the boundaries of different media. Since then, Sylvie has not stopped feeding the creative spark that her grandmother lit in her.
“Having moved to the US and as an adult, I transitioned from one three-dimensional medium to the next. As a young adult, I created wax sculptures, and during my undergraduate years, I undertook stone sculpture. I then moved on to glass mosaics, wirework, beading, polymer clay sculpture and anything else I could get my hands on. Once in Guam, I started teaching art lessons as well as creating my own work. My love for clay resurfaced while I was doing my Master of Arts in Art at the University of Guam. I was also blessed enough to work there as an adjunct professor teaching sculpture and ceramics.”
As a three-dimensional artist, she specializes in sculpture and ceramics whereby her artwork is biomorphic in style and sensual in movement. Originally from Seychelles but currently living in Guam, she has always been greatly inspired by the sea and all of its inhabitants, as well as the rest of her natural surroundings. When working with clay, most of her work is created solely with her bare hands as she believes in letting her direct sense of touch guide her sculptural work. Her hands inevitably create what she loves – memories of a childhood paradise, sea life, and the ever-swaying movement of life forces such as the waves and winds.
“I get a lot of my inspiration from my surroundings, and I do take a lot of pictures when I travel but the sea is the biggest consistent environmental influencer in my artwork. After all, having lived a major part of my life in the islands of Seychelles and Guam, the tropical seas have been ever present.”
“The power of touch in the creative process can be profound. The “A-ha” moment for me was when I first sculpted with porcelain – it was absolutely amazing. I had sculpted with regular clay many times, but it was nothing like porcelain. Porcelain felt like a dream. It felt like the silkiest muscular skin going through my hands, and it was so sensual and comforting. From then on, I have only sculpted with porcelain or extremely smooth white clay.”
“The fact that I sculpt without tools between myself and the clay means I can feel exactly what my hands are doing—like how they’re touching and impacting the clay. This direct connection means I don’t even need to look at the piece while I’m making it to know and feel what is happening. It’s such a reassuring feeling that it just soothes the soul. My hope is that I can convey that soothing connection to others through my sculptures.”
Sylvie’s artwork has recently been showcased in Women United Art Magazine, Hyatt Regency Guam,
Eden Art Space (Seychelles), Art Fluent, Teravarna, Light Space and Time, and the Isla Center For the Arts
(Guam) and can be purchased at Artwork Archive and from her website. Her sculptures have found homes in the US, UK, Seychelles, Australia, and India.
Sylvie is also on Instagram @SylvieAlvarezArt. or visit www.SylvieAlvarez.com
