Soft coppers, dried plums, crimson reds, eggplant, off whites, greyish greens, maroons, soft golden yellows, creamy yellows, purples, ginger, obsidian, misty greys and charcoal blacks covered with silver rain drops.

Edmundston Art Centre
October 8 to November 14, 2015

Nature, I carry her in me and I am in her ...

The universe is full of repeating patterns, forms, rhythms and sequences that flow through time.  I imagine them being carried by gears of stone and bone, machines of wind and fire, fabrics and wefts of matter that interlace and spin to infinity on magnificent cogs, spirals and loops of energy.

Humans exist in a cycle, just like animals, plants, stars and galaxies.  There is fertility, birth, death and rebirth in all that exists.  

Everything is movement, everything is evolution.

When taking photos facing the sun, sometimes it creates light spots or coloured flares ... this photo of the installation "Rising Mist" was quite a surprise!

"You are free to choose, but you are not free from the consequences of your choices." - Anonymous

A paradox is a strange thing.  It reflects the dynamic nature of opposing forces.  As creative beings, we strive to think outside of the box; but at the same time, we instinctively put nature in a box, even our own.

In this photo, "Paradox" is installed downriver from a hydroelectric dam.  I had started by placing the work well inside the river, about three feet from the shoreline.  Within an hour, it was practically completely out of the water, not because of natural tides since this river is more than a hundred kilometers from the sea, but because the dam that was cutting off the flow of the river.

With this installation, I wanted to give form to my reflections on how we impose our needs on rivers by harnessing the power of water; and at the same time, on how we are mesmerized by the beauty of rivers in their natural, wild and unbridled states.

Here is the first out of 19 works that I created during my residency in Landart at the "Aux trois Plaquebières", Ste-Marie St-Raphael, Lamèque Island. It was created with pebbles and a metal frame found on the beach.  The photos show the work at various times over a period of two days.  During the night of the second day, a very strong wind and the rising tide destroyed it.  The metal frame ended 150 feet from where I had raised it and the stone heap was no more.

Last year, I carried around for most of the summer, in the back of my car, 5 big ceramic eggs for my "Ab Ovo" project.  

I never thought twice about how strange it might seem to landowners, to whom I would ask permission to temporarily install the ceramic eggs on their properties.  I was always well received and I was happy to answer lots of questions about my work and about art in general.  All those meetings were memorable.

Darkening skies ... mood and atmosphere in nature are often created by color, luminosity, shadows, textures, sounds, scents; and a multitude of other elements that are like a cast of characters in a book that is written by Mother Nature.

Often, I will start a sculpture spontaneously, without having too many preconseived ideas of where it is going to lead me. Just being open-minded and by having some salvaged materials that inspire me is enough to begin.

At other times, I will make a sketch of the main composition lines of a work.  When my ideas are more complex, I will draw with a lot more details to better plan various stages of the work or assembly. Certainly, all this can change along the way and take a completely different direction.  I always leave room so that spontaneity can exist, and I trust that it will bring me the needed insights as to where the creation wants to go. 

For this sculpture, I used modelling and coiling techniques.  I fashioned the body in three pieces; first, because of the weight of the clay and second, to simplify the transportation of the work.  For the assembly, that complicates things. It is necessary to think of the sculpture as being modular and not having the end result look like it.  At the same time, the assembly and dissasembly has to be easy to do. I finished this sculpture so that it could be transported in two pieces. The weight of each piece is rather considerable, I would even say, to the limit!

I love walking in nature.  It puts me in the "zone".  All my senses are hightened and inspiration floods in.  There is an abstract and poetic feel to nature that I find captivating.  I love observing the interrelations between all that exists.

Cast shadows are fascinating to look at.  They are fragments of time, painted by objects in the path of a light source.  

The play of cast shadows is unique and ephemeral. With the sun and the earth's rotation, they dance constantly into new compositions, and at the end of the day, they dissappear into the darkness.

It doesn't matter if its warm or cold, my heart sings when I'm doing landart.  I adore being close to nature and the feeling of freedom this brings to me.  I also love the feeling that all my senses are deeply connected with the natural environment.  

Here, I'm working on a "Seed Catcher" installation in Janeville, NB, Canada. At the time, I was on my way to a meeting, but I had to stop.  The frozen grasses following the contours of the shoreline, facing a huge icy seascape, were calling to me.

Working in ceramic raku is a great pleasure, but also a great challenge.  It's mind boggling as to how many factors come into play, influencing the final results.

One of the things I love most about this process is working with the elements of nature: water, air, earth and fire.

Prehistoric art and world mythologies have always inspired me.  I explore the primitive essence of woman, her power of creation and her connections with the earth and the cycles of nature.  I see the female body as an archaic container, a passage where life can be reborn.  Skins, furs, scales, shells, eggs or cocoons become cradle envelopes ready to moult or to hatch into a new life; or transform into sarcophagi, sheltering the remains where life existed in the past.

"In her paintings, sculptures, installations, public artworks, and land art, she presents a personal vision based on a deep, primal knowledge held within the tissues of our bodies and connected to the living earth. Her expressions of body-earth identification allude to the wisdom of matriarchal religions of prehistory, to ancient mythical and ritual content related to the cycles of life and death, and to the fertility of nature."  Terry Graff, Director/CEO and Chief Curator