Michael LaFosse was supposed to be one of two invited guests but he couldn’t come.  I shall thank Michael next time I see him for allowing me to torture the 50 folders who came to this event.  Most of the participants came from France but we had some from Poland, Belgium, and Sweden.

   The other invited guest was Vincent Floderer (www.le-crimp.org).  What a treat! You can download a fabulous article on his team’s techniques from:


http://le-crimp.org/spip.php?page=documents&id_article=11

Vincent explained that when he started crushing paper into mushrooms, sponges, and abstract forms, the people in France and Japan clamed his creations were not origami.  Not so in the States where he was warmly received.  I was happy to discover that Vicent’s personality and humor were as wonderful as his art.  This humble man with a unique style was a pleasure to be around both in an out of the classroom.  A little more than half the students were busy folding paper that felt more like thin rubberized tissue into many layered bases that they crunched and rolled and then carefully separated the layers.  The result looked similar to the Floderer’s abstract figure seen in the top right corner of the right photograph. Vincent considers his art to be objects of reflection, inspired by nature and travel.


   My 5 workshops were perhaps a bit more challenging given that I had forgotten all my French during the years I spent in South America learning Spanish.  “You put the fold right about…here” doesn’t go over well with folders of any language.  Notwithstanding, the OORAA participants are accomplished folders with more talent than most folders that attend conventions in the States.  We made my kit fox, polar bear head, bear paw, bluebird chick, and pair of owlets.  I also showed a video I made of one of my bear projects in Peru.  I plan to include all these models and a DVD of the video in a book Nicolas Terry plans to publish of my work next year.  He emailed these links to me on the reflections of Cecile and Forest about the OORAA Convention:


http://www.pliagedepapier.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=2216#p35222

http://www.pliagedepapier.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=2216#p35296

and some photos:

http://www.pliagedepapier.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=2663#p35167


   The workshop was held in a two-room atelier rented to artists for a very nominal fee of 25 Eu a day.  Some of the younger folders and the organizers slept in the rooms at night to save on hotel bills. A hotel room slightly bigger than a bed fetches 50 Eu (1 Euro = $1.70).  The first coffee and two croissants I ordered cost 4.8 EU, and that was for a “grande” coffee (4 oz.).  I was somewhat disappointed and amused when the folders broke for lunch and went to MacDonalds and Subway. I later learned that fast food often was half the price of an equivalent French meal.

   During one lunch break I took my foot-long meatball grinder into the courtyard of the Musee des Beaux Arts, and ate it below a Rodin.  Everything else was authentic.  Several young people were locking faces, and most everybody else was puffing on cigarettes.  Yves Clavel, the editor of Le Pli, the magazine of the Mouvement Francais Des Pliers de Papier (MFPP), invited me to see the show at this museum on art immediately following World War II from 1945-50.  It was fascinating to see similar structure and movement in all the pictures from both sides of the Atlantic.  Almost every square inch was covered by some moving form; expressions of the confusion, torment, and energy of the post-war period.

   Other days we toured the old parts of Lyon.  Centuries ago passages were built through houses that connected streets.  Towers were also built inside courtyards. On the left photo you can see Vincent looking up at the tower on the other side of the courtyard (right picture).  These two features that Lyon is known for became very useful to the underground during the world wars.

    After the conference I took the train to Paris to see my friend Eric Joisel.  We spent the night at the two-story apartment of Yves Clavel and his wife Marie Helene, who is also a journalist (left photo).  Eric’s work was everywhere in their apartment, a testimony to the close relationship Eric has with this wonderful couple.  I gave Eric my big lying bear, and the Clavels my elephant with young.  Eric surprised me by giving me “a study” he had brought with him from his house in Sanois.

We spent the next day visiting the Musee de Quai Branly, the modern museum built under Jaques Chirac for primitive art from around the world, a must see if you are in Paris (www.quaibranly.fr/).  At lunch Eric confessed that the internet was destroying origami societies whose leadership has been slow to adapt to the free information for mostly younger folders that societies charge for.  I sensed sadness in this man who has been the guiding force for introduced a half million people to origami, but who is unappreciated in his own country.  He said people look at his work in France and think it is done by kids.  Unless it is hung on a wall or tough as marble, it isn’t valuable, nor can it accrue value.  Designers of origami are acutely aware of this general problem.  Here is a view of the museum and Eric at a bus stop:

   Hanging over my entire visit was the election of Barack Obama as our next president.  I arrived in France the day after his electoral victory.  The French, as well as their European neighbors, were wildly excited about his election.  A taxi driver in Lyon confessed that he had an 85% approval rating in France.  All the front pages of newspapers and magazines were covered with large photos of him and his family.  However sweet his election was perceived, it started a conversation about race that some people here would rather not have.  There are very few non-Caucasian people in the French government or heading companies.  This fact is not meant to criticize the government, but it reveals the divisions that society is wrestling with all over Europe.  The recent immigrants from places like North Africa and Turkey are buoyed by Obama’s election as much as they are furious at their present state.  Long-time residents of France are equally dissatisfied at having to provide social services for immigrants who don’t pay taxes and take away jobs.  We in the States still have a long way to go on the issues of race and immigration.  However, we have taken a giant step forward that hopefully will erase some of the damage our government has done to our image here and abroad.