In her weblog les grigris de Sophie of april 30, 2011 Sophie Lepetit had an article about the outsider environment of Jean Billon. Since the internet has no information in english about this artist, I am happy Sophie agreed to have her text republished here in an english translation.

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Sophie Lepetit,

The sculptures of Jean Billon at Beauvoir-sur-Mer

I discovered the wooden sculptures of Beauvoir-sur-Mer during a holiday around All Hallows (autumn 2010), but I did not put them online without havingmet the owner of this amazing garden.

When I stopped to ask for an appointment and the possibility of returning, the response was immediate, warm and enthusiastic: no need to wait, I was welcome!

Jean Billon, since it is about him, is a nice and confident person. He is obviously happy to talk about his work and to show the sculptures, which not only invade his garden but also his living room

When I explained the reason for my questions and told about my blog about lieux insolites *, Jean Billon seemed captivated by the term and happy with this terminology.

He was born in Beauvoir on January 8, 1930. He comes from a family of fourteen children and did not have, one suspects, an easy childhood in his parents' farm.

At 17 he started as a farmhand in Fontenay-le-Comte and throughout his life he had different jobs: he has been a coalcutter, a factory sweeper, a porter at a bank, and a runner at BNP bank in the Paris area.

In 1992 at the age of retirement, he returned to Beauvoir, where he went to live and a little by by chance, a little because of desire he became a “chainsaw sculptor", first using pine and then cypress, kinds of wood that by aging get a nice brown colour.

These passions, it is known, always start in a strange way and the objects string themselves together without anyone knowing exactly why ...

There was a first object, a stool, a little rude, and after this, over the years 3000 sculptures came forth: "It took me time to get a grip on my instrument, because the chainsaw chops and I wanted to sculpt”

Jean Billon shows a great "satisfaction" and when I asked him what he experienced in working with wood, he responded instantaneously: "It made ​​me exist, one sets oneself in what is carried out."

His most productive period was between 2003 and 2005, when every day he made three sculptures.

It's hard to imagine that all these objects have been achieved with a chainsaw

Jean Billon especially likes animals (owls, cats, pigs, turtles, pelicans and a amazing millipede), but there are also food (bread, ham, fish sausage ...), tools (scissors, forks, a giant razor) and an extraordinary library of books, including “Un petit Billon”, a book on mushrooms and many more intimate books about his life (a family book, books about surgery he underwent…..)

Jean Billon has offered some of his works to his physiotherapist and to the surgeon who has operated him, but he took care to preserve a copy of his gifts.

The sculptures are sometimes symbolic, like "The end of the tunnel,", a small dog that will never see "the end of the tunnel".

In the garden one can see an African character and a giraffe, that originate from the artist’s imagination and his fascination with African art (indeed Jean Billon never travelled abroad).

The objects that required most work are the ostrich of 2m40, the oxen and the beacon of the Gois **.

I admit I had a love at first for the books and the movable woodworks - an ostrich and a donkey-cart. From static objects the sculptures become dream machines.

Jean Billon sometimes mixes materials and adds objects to the cypress wood, like small plastic objects, metal eyes and also horns and other humoristic"squeaker squeaker", to give life to the ducks.

Some ten years ago Swiss television came to film the Vendee Globe Challenge ***, and looking for places of interest in the region, they did not hesitate to do a report on Jean Billon.

Articles have appeared in local newspapers, like Ouest France and french tv FR3 in its turn has made a report.

Nowadays 81 years old, Jean Billon is not as productive any more, it must be said that handling the chainsaw with a shoulder prosthesis is no longer an option.

He lives surrounded by the comforting bestiary, his “children" (he never married) and receives visitors with enthusiasm.

His very nice garden attracts the attention of passersby and there is no shortage of visits. Jean Billon is happy with the positive feedback and the compliments and he does not hesitate to offer a ride in a cart to children who accompany their parents!

If you pass through the Vendée, please stop!

notes

* lieux insolites a french expression to denote folk art environments

** the passage du Gois is a 4.2 km long road that connects the mainland with the isle of Noirmoutier, accessible at low tide, flooded at high tide; beacons along the road offer a refuge if necessary

*** a yacht race around the world, from/to Les Sables d’Olonne

added to OEE-texts july 2011