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August 2007
Journal Saone and Loire
by: Frederique Roussei
James benefits from his 18 hectares (40 acres) at the Chateau d’ Ouilly to create and store his sculptures. “I’ve gotta have something larger (then my current studio space), like a hangar, to work on my sculptures.”
The airplane comes from New Orleans and finally lands in Paris. There remains still the route by car, direction Lausanne, on autoroute A6. James is tired, but the sun is shining and he sees that he would benefit well from the landscape of the Saone-and-Loire region before continuing. A force pushes him to take the exit toward Tournus. A force? The force of art! The mushroom sculptures at the edge of the motorway, which so amuse children at the edge of the moterway, have apparently guided James. "The things which inspire to me, I am," he confides. He is Michalopoulos, James Michalopoulos and he is a painter and sculptor. "I took a right... by chance... the landscape was so beautiful by the village of Mancey!".
With reverence of the landscape along the narrow sunny roads, the artist discovers the countryside. But the telephone rings. The art gallery in Lausanne awaits his exhibition of canvas… James swears to himself he’ll return as soon as possible. That was twelve years ago, the first time that he discovered our beautiful country. Since then, water has passed through the Grosne.
James Michalopoulos lived two months in a gite (furnished apartment), before purchasing a house in Tallant, a "quasi ruin" to renovate. He began his French language studies which he has now spoken for seven years. Four years ago, he came across a forsaken castle in the middle of the nowhere near Montagny-sur-Grosne, and an eventful unraveling of affairs made it possible for him to buy the building, the Chateau d’Ouilly. (The Castle of Ouilly). The chateau serves as his place of work and living, practical for the artist. "The building is modern”, explains James, “which is not interesting for everyone, but it is useful for me." Indeed the history of the property is turbulent and unusual.
The castle was used as school, then as a hospital during the French-Prussian war, then in the 1970’s it acted as a vacation colony for the people of the town Chalon . It dates back to the beginning of the XI century, but only the stables, (currently James’ workshop), is still of that epoch, (architecturally), the castle has been rebuilt upon its ruins, in the more modern style of the XIX century. "It demands a lot of working hours from me,” explains James, “I’ve had to rebuild five roofs already. This occupies my time more than my work as an artist."
The American finds within the breast of the countryside, his muse. A series of paintings depicting the (river) Grosne in all seasons and in all details. This is a notable shift from his American cars. "Since I have been here, my subjects have changed. Here I live in the country, normally I live in the city. I often paint French architecture; I have also been influenced by French food!" James experiments a lot, he explains to us a bit of his artistic thought process. "I occupy myself with different things according to my interests, I organize around something, in this moment, the color blue, but it could be women, houses..."
The artist paints with his heart, it’s for this reason that he arrived in France. Here he started to paint dinosaurs, animals in general are good subjects for him. "I never painted dinosaurs... until I arrived in France" he remarks, he goes on "everything is more interesting in France, nothing interests me elsewhere! The cows in front of the house.. they relax the mind a bit, and they sell very well in New York - the cows! It’s crazy!"
James exposes and sells, in particular his cows, everywhere in Europe, but especially in the United States. He currently works on a sculpture which will be approximately ten meters in height to start, but the "challenge" will be to create a future version of thirty meters... Difficulties? _ The space, of course. The workshop is not large enough, but also the material, to know how put it together, to construct, to reinforce the metal, the cement, the glass, the scrap and the rubber, to raise the sculpture. "I persist to find all of which I need to build it," he announces, confidently.
But James Michalopoulos does not miss an opportunity. He is also the head of the enterprise, "I make rum from the city: Old New Orleans, it is one of the oldest Rum manufacturers in North America." After having closed the factory for one year because of Katrina, the anger of the Earth which beat down upon New Orleans, the distillery was almost completely rebuilt and then reopened six months ago: Bright idea of the artist: to have his paintings appear on the interior of the bottles! A project which soon will be on the market, for now, in the United States. An additional occasion to link Louisiana with the Grosne!
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