Virginie Falquerho
I first met Virginie at an art opening in the Hayes Valley neighborhood of San Francisco late 2002. Long story short, we got married in May of 2003 and eventually divorced in late 2007. Although our relationship had extreme highs and lows, I am continually flabbergasted by her constant participation within the communities she lives. Bouncing around from modeling for several local painters, fostering rabbits in need of shelter and walking the dogs at Animal Care and Control on Sundays. She served as my own muse for several years and I'm now taking this opportunity to share this lovely and delightful woman with the rest of the world. Here within this web-umentary you will find a sporadic peek into her world.
The Wedding Video
I asked her to write an introduction
I was born in August 1974 in Nantes, France.
As a child, one of my favorite activity was to find
dead animals and bury them. I felt so good giving them
a final place to rest (I couldn't escape the
Catholicism surrounding me).
My grand-mother used to catch flies with her bare
hands (quite a skill) and throw them in a bucket of
water in the sink until they died of exhaustion. So I
would wait for her to take her afternoon nap, and
rescue them. I loved watching them dry in a ray of
sun, slowly rub their wings back to life and then take
off.
I would also rescue insects from spider webs (not
realizing that I was destroying the spider's meal and
house) Oh well, no animal activist is perfect.
Anyhow, I grew up with everything I could get my hands
on and my heart into, turtles, fish, birds, cats,
dogs, rats, mice, even a toad and as an adult, I got
involved with the volunteering world.
I started volunteering with elders back in France
which I kept doing when i first moved to San Francisco
in 1997. My English wasn't so good and it proved to be
stressful for the elders who didn't understand me. So
I later got involved walking dogs at the San Francisco
Animal Care and Control which led to participating in
the reserve officer training program (animals cops),
which also led to fostering rabbits.
I used to be at the shelter 8 hours a week on top of
my regular job but now I try to do things for me too.
I finally embraced my selfishness. Et voila !
Animal Activist & Volunteer
Muse & Model
The Artwork below was created by Diane Feissel
The Artwork below is by Laila Carlsen
