Biography
Hi! I am Sev Waënelin, a French poet, amateur photographer, and painter.
"Waënelin" is a unique alias derived from the translation of my first and last name in Elvish Sindarin (I am a big fan of Tolkien). I've been using it for twenty-five years. This online identity has become my artist name, then my pen name.
I was born in 1976 near Paris, France. Literary at heart, I started writing poetry as a teen, with an acute feeling that I could not say things differently. At this time, it was a matter of survival: my poetry notebook was my diary, similarly serving as a unique confidant and vital outlet.
With Baudelaire's "Fleurs du Mal" and Rimbaud's "Illuminations" — among others — as my bedside books, I would naturally, almost fluently write in verse, while I couldn't have expressed the same emotions in prose. Like any diary, this notebook was absolutely secret. It took me years to show some of these poems to a few chosen friends, and even longer to accept the idea of publishing them.
Attracted to visual arts as well, I started painting in my 20's, quickly switching from gouache to oil painting. I remember being so amazed when I discovered oils: so much depth in colors, so many possibilities! I've never been able to paint as a dilettante though; it needed hours of focus and isolation, and I had to put this activity aside for lack of availability. I was studying philosophy at the university of Sorbonne at the time, and life also made me a gift: a beautiful little girl. I only came back to painting quite recently, after a lapse of twenty years. What you'll find on this site are recent paintings, I didn't keep my early works.
My Philosophy degree obtained, I held many different jobs while traveling often to meet another of my passions: horses. In my 30's, I took a leap and left Paris for the countryside in order to work on getting the official French certificate for horse guiding. This diploma now allows me to work as a horse guide any time, mostly during the summer season. Horses are essential to my well-being.
Versatile, naturally curious, a "free spirit" — so I'm told —, I have worked in different fields to satisfy my thirst for knowledge: computer science, publishing, graphic design, brand identity, ... I also passed the CAPLP (French certificate of aptitude for teaching in professional high schools) in French and English. Still interested in visual arts, I eventually self-trained in Photoshop and worked several years as a graphic & web designer.
These days I spend my free time writing, photographing and painting. Since 2020, I also write poetry in English. It is a new, exciting challenge! You can find some English poems here, if you like what you read, follow me on Instagram where I post very often. I'm thinking of publishing a second poetry book, in English this time, combining translations and new texts, maybe illustrated with paintings and photos.
My first poetry collection Hors du Monde, gathering over twenty years of selected works, is available online and from all major booksellers.
About “Hors du Monde”
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