Looking back on your travels, what did they bring you?
When I was a teenager, I used to watch a very popular TV show: Reports of a journey around the world by Boudewijn Büch. The presenter was Dutch, a writer and poet who travelled to and showed some incredible places, encountering extraordinary people and phenomena.

This programme had such an effect on me that I made up my mind to set off on my own to Norway when I was 16. I travelled around the country by train and it was unbelievable! The beauty of nature and the kindness of the people took my breath away. I was hooked on travel and I decided I(d stay as long as possible in the countries that I’d visit. Travel broadens the mind and is the source of all sorts of inspiration. Coming back home is quite another matter…

Can you link these journeys to your art today?
Very much so! Travel inspires me totally, seeing other cultures, religions, ruins and also being in touch with nature, surfing.

What is it that enables this combination of yoga, art, writing, travel and surfing?
I believe we all have different activities which make us, which form our “divine”, which reveal our receptivity; this is what yoga, surfing, drawing and travel allows. For me it’s important, every day, to empty my mind, reconnect and receive new messages. It’s also lots of questions and sometimes few answers.

I feel privileged to be able to combine these activities when I travel. They are moments that I use to live to the full by meditating, drawing, writing and trying to catch a wave!

You were very ill in 2013, can you tell us how that changed your view of life?
I had cancer in 2013 and to fight it, to live, I chose to launch myself into an activity that was dormant in me and that just needed to be woken up: art. It has become by meditation, my vaccine. It has changed my outlook in many ways, especially about how I approach the future.

It was an opportunity to start a new life. Learn to be satisfied with each day, only have good moments and enjoy them.

“I wouldn’t describe myself as an artist, more as a creator. It is my nearest and dearest who have given me strength. They are my source of inspiration and they’ve taught me to follow my dreams. It is the future that will tell me what they will be.”

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The pictures are by Marie-Therese Pfisterer