Jean-Louis Sosna is a French graphic designer who graduated with a Decorative Arts Diploma in Geneva.

After a few internships in Parisian and Tunisian agencies, he started his career in a Genevan agency where he was in charge of communication for ten years.
In 1985 he opened his own workshop in Geneva where he has produced many art books, posters, logos and brochures.
At the same time, he began to paint with watercolors especially during his travels. Over the years, his works have been exhibited in multiple Swiss and French galleries. Since 2017, he has put all of his time into personal research.

The collection of painted wood

During his walks in the forest Jean-Louis has noticed many colourful signs being put on tree trunks by forestry workers to mark the trees that had to be cut down for timber.

First, he only had little care about these marks, especially knowing that it meant the exploitation of the forest. But in the end he found that these colored marks are all different in size, shape and colours, and this captured his interest.

His background in graphic design certainly helped in this interest and made him observe these marks without falling into his militantist thoughts regarding the destruction of the forest. Then these marks had a new meaning to him. They are no longer clumsy spots , but a spontaneous gesture. Behind each tag is a man with his own sensitivity, and the texture of the wood serves as a medium. Therefore Jean-Louis has decided to collect all these painted forms with his camera, like cataloguing all of these individual marks left on the wood.