NOEMIE LENOIR (2016)
I WILL PREVIVE [The Book Of Rocks] diary extract, 23 November 2016
AND GOD CREATED FRENCH WOMAN series (2016)
“I was pleasantly surprised (and fairly relieved) yesterday to discover that I’m not the only one who feels unhinged on the inside. I’ll call it the “loose canon” condition. Thanks for letting me know that I am not alone with this sentiment and that my merde has resonated in some way beyond my thoughts.
Mum used to get the French catalogue, La Redoute, which would regularly land with a massive thump on the mat. (Who buys from catalogues these days? Do they actually still exist??? I do believe t’Internet has replaced them.) It usually arrived before our summer holiday so we could all order ourselves some shiny new threads. The model who stood to me out from its pages was the beautiful Noémie Lenoir (another first name I love and another one to get trashed in English: Noémie = Gnomey?). She is of French-Réunion-Malagasy heritage and says she grew up in a Parisian “ghetto”. Photographed happily prancing around in short shorts, halter neck tops and swimming cozzies, she looked picture-postcard perfect. Those curls!!! Later on she modelled for Marks n Sparks and Next in the UK.
I thought of her after drawing Teri Moïse because she also tried to take her own life and once again I found this really sad. It shows how you can’t tell what someone is feeling inside, no matter how beautiful they are on the outside. How do people get through periods of depression or avoid potential depression? I don’t know the answer as everyone is made differently but this drawing lark has been a big help to me through all the recent highs and lows. So I say hold on to your coping mechanisms for as long as they work, if it’s only to get you through to the next day. You might even learn something you never knew about yourself along the way.
Your hump day wine this week is Something Good Can Work The Twelves Remix by Two Door Cinema Club.”