My first name is Didier (aka DDA).
I paint to exist, to be the artisan of my own happiness.

As a child, teenager and even young adult, I was forbidden to BE, to build myself as an individual. I was formatted, coerced, manipulated, in order to contribute to the sole narcissistic satisfaction of the parental couple: “Be perfect, but don’t you dare surpass us!” A contradictory and destructive double injunction, believe me.
Having said that, I won’t dwell here on the apparent normality of the family context, nor on the actual life behind closed shutters. The blank-eyed, closed-mouthed faces I paint are clues to what was never meant to be seen, to what would probably never be said.

Art, fortunately!

From 1992 to 1995, I learned drawing and painting at the Institut Constantin Meunier, the academy of Etterbeek (Belgium), but it would take me another 15 years to awaken my creativity… 15 years to reconnect with my buried emotions… 15 years to give me permission to express myself through painting.
As you’ve probably noticed, I also take my inspiration from a few artistic references, of which here are the 3 main ones:

• Louise Brooks and the late 1920s,
• Amedeo Modigliani,
• Japanese prints.

“In each of his canvases, Didier gives us his raw, unadulterated truth. (…) As for the names Didier gives to his canvases, they point us in the direction of the complexity he lives out at every moment. Didier will never impose himself on us. But through his works, this unarmored child-soldier disarms anyone who takes the time to stop, and reveals a part of ourselves.” H.D.