The second week of May got off to a happy start. A photo shoot with my friend Richard Tardif in my studio in Montreal, where fashion and art came together. Two recent creations, ‘Envol‘ (acrylic, 60” x 54”) and ‘Copines au printemps‘ (acrylic, 60” x 45”) are set against the background of young model Alexandra Maria Misu. She is wearing creations by fashion designer Frank Sukhoo and milliner Madeleine Cormier. Thanks also to make-up artist Emmanuelle Parent, who reproduced the colours in my paintings, and to Johane Tremblay, who coordinated the project. This is just the beginning of our collaboration. More projects to come! To be continued…
And speaking of taking off, I’m opening my studio to the public on 9 June as part of the Artists’ Open House at Canal LachineComplex.
Today, I’d like to talk to you about Djémila. As if in a crazy dream, I can see the ancient city of Cuicul. I’ve taken flight and landed there, yes, I’m now that red bird carried by the wind!
You should know that every spring, I feel and sense; let’s say that I live and relive these impossible nuptials with the god Pan and the gods of an adolescence – mine – that simply can’t and won’t die yet.
Everything changed in 1974. I wasn’t yet twenty. I was dreaming of leaving the family nest. In the provinces, in Sherbrooke, in the Eastern Townships, it had been a long, long winter… But the author of Les Noces had already taken me to the heights of Djémila.
First, there was the spring engagement. Then one summer, after my first long-haul trip abroad, I was off on my own!
With only the wind blowing through my long hair as my companion, I searched for this stone among stones… Pack-sack on my back, dressed in an orange tunic and never leaving my old, faded, sky-blue jeans, I searched and searched for it under the sun: “There are places where the spirit dies so that a truth is born which is its very negation”.
In the Garden of Delights, I tasted the Absolute: “The wind shaped me in the image of the fiery nakedness that surrounded me. And its fleeting embrace gave me, stone among stones, the solitude of a column or an olive tree in the summer sky” (Albert Camus, Noces, 1958).
Let’s talk about the pleasure of being. Living is our only connection with the Divine. And while we’re at it, painting is a grace. I’m talking about the ecstasy that annihilates all vain efforts at repentance. Like a violent flash, it will never leave you now, this ephemeral image of the spirit that has chosen to materialise on the bare canvas!
Art is spiritual, that’s my truth.
Let’s celebrate the engagement of spring and life in full swing. Let’s raise our glasses in honour of the happy couple!
© Luc Martineau 2022.
