La joven artista

Art can be something encouraging, an inspiration, a catalyst; it can make us laugh, it can make us see the world from a different perspective. For Valérie Mréjen, it has also been, along with writing, her way of life since graduating from a prestigious Faculty of Fine Arts on the outskirts of Paris. In this circular journey through that part of her life, she must pass the entrance exams among a multitude of applicants, resist the reluctance of her family, learn to live with other artists, try not to copy what she likes, manage to participate in exhibitions, have the gift of opportunity, and avoid becoming discouraged. She must also deal with the frivolities and commonplaces of the art world. A fun coming-of-age novel, an intimate account of a vocation, and a logbook of her artistic discoveries, in which Valérie Mréjen pays homage to her favorite artists and recounts her student years, something she does with her usual clinical eye and with scalpel-cut prose in which the caricature and the humorous are imbued with tenderness and empathy for those young people, aspiring to be masters in the art of life, that we have all been at one time or another.