Awareness through art

With a strong care for the environment, artist Geneviève Maquinay is keen about working with recycled materials: pieces of wood and stones; strings and textile; glass and scraps of metal. Both Anne and Genevieve share a strong commitment for the environment and are passion​ate​about​ raw, organic, and recycled materials.

Colombian-Belgian painter and sculptor, Geneviève Maquinay and French Brazilian designer Anne Fontaine share a common passion for nature and the environment. Both women teamed up to protect and restore the Brazilian Atlantic forest through the annual celebration of Forest Day 2015 or Mata Atlântica Day, which was held last month.

Fontaine exhibited Maquinay’s art sculptures from April 15-30 in the Anne Fontaine store located in The Heritage On The Garden in Boston. On the last day of the showing on April 30, 50 percent of the proceeds from all sales in all 60 Anne Fontaine stores worldwide were donated to the Anne Fontaine Foundation. The Foundation’s mission is to contribute to the reforestation and protection of the Brazilian Atlantic Rainforest — Mata Atlântica — and to raise awareness of environmental issues through art and fashion.

Maquinay and Fontaine met three years ago and immediately bonded over their shared passion for nature and for the environment.

“[With] Anne as a designer and me as an artist, we agreed with the idea of raising environmental awareness through art and fashion. And because Anne is from Brazil and I’m from Colombia we found we had many things to tell. So, this was really the starting point for the collaboration,” said Maquinay in a recent phone interview with the Banner.

Fontaine, who was born in Rio de Janeiro and spent the first 20 years of her life in Brazil and close to nature, created the Anne Fontaine Foundation in 2011. According to the Foundation’s website, the Mata Atlântica forest is one of the richest forests in terms of biodiversity, but also one of the most threatened. It used to cover an area of more than 1,360,000 km2. Today in Brazil, only 7 percent of this area remains intact.

Both Anne and Geneviève share a strong commitment for the environment and are passionate about raw, organic, and recycled materials. Maquinay uses recycled materials such as pieces of wood and stones, strings and textile, glass and scraps of metal in her sculptures.

From a young age, Maquinay always liked to paint and sculpt.

“I found inspiration in the beauty of the tropical landscapes in Colombia and South America,” said the artist. She traveled a lot in her youth throughout Latin America and also around the world, and seeing the landscape was one of her favorite adventures. She’s always been in love with nature; especially with flowers, butterflies and birds.

Maquinay, who studied fine art in Colombia, left when she was 19 years old. She continued her studies in Belgium and in Italy graduating from the renowned Art School of La Cambre in Brussels, which is known for its architecture and visual arts school. But, Colombia was always in her heart.

“When I was already abroad I wanted to do something for my country,” she said. “At that moment, Colombia was in a lot of difficulties and most of the things that were hard for me were that there was a lot of kidnappings going on.”

So, she and her husband, who had emigrated to the U.S., settled in New York and co-founded the non-profit organization Caring For Colombia in 2004 with a group of Americans and Colombian ex-patriots who were concerned about the country’s growing socio-economic issues. The foundation’s mission is to empower vulnerable communities through health, education and the arts.

“With the work that we are promoting, we see there is a difference. When we go there and meet the people in our project you see that we have been able to change their lives. That is very important to me,” said Maquinay.