Joelle Kem Lika

I was born in March 1955, on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. Early childhood... memories of the blue... of the ochre of the earth, the scents of bougainvilleas, the sparkling colours of flowers... then childhood and adolescence on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean, in Lacanau Océan near Bordeaux, inspired me to love the ocean, the forests... A wild and soothing side that I loved to draw already. At twenty years old I moved to Paris. First art school: Atelier Albers (two years).... At the same time I discovered the world of psychology, it fascinated me. I decided to become a psychotherapist at the age of 28 and I created a psychotherapy practice in the heart of Paris, le Marais, until June 2006. I continued to paint throughout this period. At forty years old, a country house in the Yonne near Chablis allowed me to go back to school: Beaux Arts d'Auxerre... Ten years of pure happiness... and painting sessions in the countryside, water lilies on the small river: the Serein... In 2000, I decorated my office, a 700m2 loft in the Marais, with paintings of very, very large poppies... a great success and my first exhibition proposal. I stopped my career as a shrink in 2006, I was 51 years old... and wanted to start a new life as a painter. November 2012 Capital Art Exhibition - Grand Palais, Champs Elysées. The next month I was in New York. After having exhibited in different places in France since 2000, I opened my painting galleries: in 2007 in Burgundy in Sainte Vertu sur Serein, near Chablis in 2009 in Aquitaine in Lacanau Océan, a workshop from 2010 to 2017 back in the centre of Paris... in the Haut Marais, on the rue Montorgueil side in the Halles district, trendy, alive, in motion...