aliénor...

Je viens de lire Aliénor de Richard Desjardins, publié chez Lux Éditeur. Tout en alexandrins, ce court récit, ou chanson de geste, raconte la vie tumultueuse d'Aliénor d'Aquitaine par la voix de Gauthier sans Avoir. Encore une fois, j'ai été transportée par le talent et l'intelligence d'écriture de Richard Desjardins. Les magnifiques illustrations de Shrü (désolée, je n'ai pas trouvé de lien) nous accompagnent tout au long de notre lecture. À lire et regarder !

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This was a French special. Back to our regular program next post!

mon pays...

My museum gigs have been postponed for a few days. So I decide to use this unexpected free time to finish this painting and start other projects. The painting is now listed in my store. It was inspired by a Gilles Vigneault song.

Mon pays ce n'est pas un pays, c'est l'hiver...
My country is not acountry, it's winter...

Oh and I also did the small bust a few years ago...

Amongst the other projects are these two monotypes print made of oil paint and colored in Photoshop. I've been thinking of doing monotypes again for a few months and finally made up my mind. I'm a bit rusty. But I love this technique. It's a bit like using a Holga to do photography: you never know what will come out of it. Even the mistakes are interesting. I can use most of them as textured backgrounds. The Blue Bottle and the Tea cup are also listed in my shop.




By looking at my older posts, I think I was a bit a inspired by Joe ;)

branche...

I knitted a lot lately and now have way too much mufflers. So I decided to start to doodle again. This is one of my efforts.

Three links to wonderful collages: Richard Russell (via Dear Ada), daily poetics and Hugh Shurley (via The Lumper.)

joe evershot...

Yesterday, the postman brought me this wonderful print from Joe Evershot. When I saw his store, I fell in love with his work. It's even more beautiful up close. His website shows another side of his wonderful work.

I'm so excited! I have not one, but three new gigs for multimedia projections in museums! I can't talk much about it until the projects are launched in June. And this means that I won't be able to blog much for a few weeks but I'll keep you posted...

holga 2...

These are my last black & white Holga photos. I still have a color roll that I will use later, when it's less cold outside.

Le projet 6 milliards d'autres sera présenté au Grand palais de Paris du 10 janvier au 12 février. Heureusement qu'il y a le web. Merci Fred pour le lien !

Ok, off to work now! Have a fun week!

holga 1...

I really like the surprises I get with my Holga camera. You aim but you never quite know what you shoot. I bought three films some time ago. Actually, I went to the cheap display and got two films without noticing at first that they were black & white. I'm not very good at black & white photography so I don't have many photos that I can show. This is what happens when you play cheap. I took those photos in December, on Mount Royal. Do you see the dog in one of the photos?

And do you see the dogs in Ryohei Hase's powerful work? (found through the lumper)

corneille...

I use this mix media image as my avatar on my Myspace page for at least two years now. Prints of it are now available in my store.

Kathryn Hagen really knows how to draw! She wrote several books on fashion illustration. Even if you're not too much into fashion illustration, you can learn a lot by watching videos of her teaching how to draw and color. Like her drawings, her explanations are very elegant. If all teachers were like her...

sandra and distroboto...

The postman brought me this lovely illustration by Sandra Juto, another talented artist from Sweden. Her blog is as lovely as her drawings.

I also got this nice photo magnet from a Distroboto machine which are former cigarette machines you can find in different locations in Montreal. But since 2001, instead of cigarettes, you can buy local creations like miniature books, comics, arts and craft, photos... My magnet was made by Dita Kubin. It was the first time I bought something from Distroboto. I choose my goody quite randomly. I don't know what else you can get from these machines, but I'm very happy with my purchase! Do these machines exist elsewhere in the world?

another tea cup...

Someone told me I was taking good photos of tea cups. He he! I don't know about that but it's true that I like taking these kind of pictures. Especially during winter. This particular cup was a Christmas gift for my 15 years old niece.

Jason Hackenwerth makes amoeba like balloon sculptures. Intricate, happy and colorful!

magasin...

I updated my store with some photos and a reproduction of one of my paintings.

We're all gonna die, a ambitious photo project by Simon Hoegsberg. Found via Marc Shil.
Cool (indeed!) car photos by Jakob Ehrensvard. Found via Abitare.
And Polaroid lovers, please go visit The Impossible Project. Found again via Abitare.

toronto 2...

Toronto's Chinatown is a lot bigger than Montreal's Chinatown. I walked on Spadina street, which is more like a boulevard. My first impression is that it's very commercial with lots of discount stores. But there are numerous food stores where you can find all sorts of colorful dried food. I really have to go back to Toronto on my own time, when the weather is warmer. I think it was at least -20C!

Speaking of China, there is a remarquable exhibition at Saatchi Gallery. The Revolution Continues: New Chinese Art. Very strong work from Zhang Dali, Qiu Jie, Shen Shaomin, Sun Yuan & Peng Yu and many others. Lots of great discoveries! How I wish my next gig was in London!

toronto 1...

The first four days, I stayed inside working. I was glad I had a great view from my room.
The hotel was on the shore of lake Ontario.



I took these two photos from a conference room on a lower level of the hotel. I think my camera was not set correctly but I like how the colors came out.



Finally, I had some time off on Thursday afternoon. I walked along the lake and came upon the Harbourfront Center outside stage caught up in snow and ice...



Then i took the Spadina streetcar and sang in my head an old funky song called Spadina bus...


I ended my 2 hours break at Café Rivoli on Queens Street. I used to go there 20 years ago when my friend Johanne lived in Toronto. It hadn't change one bit!



I had time to walk in Chinatown. Some photos will be posted tomorrow.

You can see more photos here.

Swedish Annika Ekdahl makes wonderful painterly tapestries. Her website shows her work, her home, her friends and her cat. I really enjoy the fact that she lets her furry friend sleep on her work! I found her via Alexandra Hedberg's blog, another unique Swedish artist currently living in London. It seems that Sweden has an incredible pool of extremely talented artists.

home...

I'm back from Toronto. I had a very busy week. I arrived there on Sunday morning and was able to put my nose back outside only on Wednesday night. I'm whipped! I'll be back tomorrow with photos from my trip. But now I'm relaxing by having some tea and reading a book. Home sweet home!

postman...

Sometimes the postman is nice enough to bring something else than bills. This week he brought me this beautiful print of Olivia Jeffries' work. I love the rich colors and how she works on old papers. She also has a blog that is worth the detour.

I'm leaving tomorrow for a week of work in Toronto. I'll be back next Friday. I hope I'll have time to take some photos.

I'm wishing you a great week!

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Je quitte demain pour une semaine de travail à Toronto. De retour vendredi prochain avec plein de photos j'espère.

Bonne semaine !

tea break...

I took a little tea break this afternoon. It's now 5:40pm and there is still tea in my cup, cup that I like very much! I got it at this wonderful ceramic fair that takes place every summer in Val David, an hour drive from Montreal. The fair is called 1001 Pots!

Petite pause thé. J'ai trouvé ce verre à 1001 pots, une exposition de céramique qui a lieu tous les étés à Val David, à environ une heure de Montréal.

props...

I'm preparing some funny props for the gig I'm working on. So far, things are going well. He he!

I wish I will find time to visit Betty Goodwin's exhibition at Galerie René Blouin. She died on December First at the age of 85. She was one of the most important contemporary artist of Canada. A must see exhibition.

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J'espère avoir le temps de visiter l'exposition de Betty Goodwin à la Galerie René Blouin. Un incontournable comme dirait René (pas Blouin, mais Homier-Roy).

work...

So on New Year's day, I worked all day. But I took a break to go see the sunset at the park near my place. It was sooooo cold!!! Some brave souls were skating! I then went back to work but only after I treated myself with Moscato d'Asti and a very good dinner. Mmm!

I've been friends on My Space with Zach Johnsen for a couple of years now. We never talked (you know how it can be on those networking sites), but I've admired his work since I first saw it. I kind of forgot about him though until I stumbled upon an article on Doodlers Anonymous showing a doodle he did. I then remembered how talented he is and also realized what a crazy sketcher he is.