Jean Pierre GANELON

Who am I?

I have been working in catering for more than thirty years. I held many posts in some establishments of Bordeaux such as waiter, cook and chef. Later, I had the opportunity to work in several French regions in order to discover the diversity of regional cooking.

Three years ago, I was suffering from a relatively rare neurological disease: facial vascular algy. This disease entails unbearable attacks of pain on the right side of the face and the brain, several times a day.

Despite many treatments, this disease became chronic and it was impossible for me to operate a job, insofar as the attacks can only be stopped by an injection which leads to a total unability during almost twenty minutes. At present, I am having a prolonged sick leave and I am forced to use oxygen in addition to the injections.

As I became single, I went back to live at my mother's house. There I am given an important moral support which allows me to tolerate, as best I can, this disease and its consequences.

The revelation...

In order to keep myself busy during the day and to take my mind off things, I went into wood carving. I use tree stumps or roots which I find on the banks of the river Garonne, on the beaches and in the forests of the area of Bordeaux.

Some of the sculptures I make require hundreds of hours work - I only use wood files and an enormous amount of sand-paper. I try to respect as far as possible the shapes nature has carved into the wood and I coat them several times with natural wax in oder to offer them a fresh new life.

My output is very reduced. On the one hand, it depends on my state of health which changes according to the day. On the other hand, the raw material I choose only intuitively is not that simple to find. Nevertheless, in order to increase my output, I will widen my researches to other different regions.

Premiers regards

Du 5 au 7 mai 2006, j'ai participé à une exposition de peintres amateurs organisée par l'Association Laïque des Familles du Haut-Médoc à Soussans où j'ai eu l'occasion de présenter pour la première fois mes réalisations publiquement. A cette occasion, j'ai reçu beaucoup d'encouragements de la part du public et des artistes peintres présents. Le fait d'avoir obtenu de la part du jury le 1^er prix de sculpture m'a donné un peu plus confiance vis-à-vis de mes réalisations.

Mon but

A présent, mon objectif est de participer à plusieurs expositions dans la région afin de recueillir le plus possible de critiques que j'espère bonnes concernant mes réalisations.
Par la suite, je démarcherai divers châteaux de vin de la région afin d'essayer de vendre mes sculptures dans le cadre du mécénat, entraînant ainsi une déduction fiscale pour chaque acquisition.

A moins d'un traitement miracle, il est fort possible que je sois mis en invalidité début Juin 2008.
La vente de mes réalisations me permettrait alors d'obtenir une indépendance vis-à-vis des allocations d'invalidité et m'amènerait à retrouver une vie presque normale.

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