Many thanks to Chantal L’Heureux for the interview (en Français!) on Magazine In Situ yesterday at Radio Centre-ville. You can hear the broadcast online. I am the second artist on the show, starting at 29:25.

We discussed the recent event, Solstice Eve at BBAM! gallery, where I presented work created as part of my theology MA thesis exploration of painting as a reflection on spiritual care. The transcription of that event is now available as well as images of the temporary installation that was shared and discussed during a very special gathering on the longest night of the year.

We also talked about my art practice more generally as it relates to the ongoing exhibition N I G H T G A R D E N. This solo show of paintings runs until the end of January and selected works are available through Artsy.

BBAM! Gallery is located at 808 Atwater and is open 12:30-6pm Tuesday-Sunday.

solo show of paintings at BBAM! gallery

VERNISSAGE: November 25, 2023 FINISSAGE: February 2, 2024

These images of “the altars to the directions” were taken at the Belgo building before the paintings were shipped to the private collector who commissioned the project. The paintings were completed from 2016-2019, starting and ending on the winter solstice. Each of the four paintings is aligned with the cardinal points and the seasons, mimicking sacred places around the world that are oriented on our shared global experiences of time and space. They were painted using acrylic on panel with oil glazing and measure 6’x12′ (side panels 3’x6′, middle panel 6’x6′). This is a dream come true of painting highly detailed intricate lines while working at a large scale and I am forever grateful for the chance to explore my craft in this way.

Many thanks to BBAM! gallery for including my work in a special presentation at the Atwater Club! Home to prestigious squash tournaments and in a historic setting on the mountain in Montreal, the Atwater Club has been a gathering place for generations and is now hosting some cutting edge contemporary art by Kristyna Baradinaskas, Kayla Breaker, Kamile Yergeau, Lacey Janet, Sam Kasirer-Smibert and myself! Join us on September 27th for an Art Vernissage 5-11pm! It is a free event and open to the public. Artwork can be previewed and is available on Artsy.

This Saturday May 27 & Sunday May 28 all are welcome to my open studio 11am to 6pm located at 2000 Northcliffe. Please use the direct entrance on Maisonneuve! There is an opening party Friday eve at the Benny Library 7-9pm. See you soon!

For the past year or so, I had the privilege of working in spiritual care at a psychiatric hospital. I ran spiritual discussion groups on several floors for teenagers and adults. We talked about what our minds and hearts thought and felt about creation, attention, purpose, non-violence, anger, the soul, friendship, love, lies, the truth, life, dreams, good & evil, the afterlife, listening and modes of thought.

I loved hearing what patients had to say, both in our group meetings and during our one-on-one conversations in quiet corners on closed units, while walking down by the river or when they dropped by my office.

Here is a painting I worked on back at my place on those long dark nights after work.

This year, 2021, I returned to a vocation that had been calling for a while during a most unusual time. Before I moved up to the woods I completed a theology degree at McGill University and a year-long internship at a hospital where I learned how to do Spiritual Care, or what used to be called chaplaincy. The ongoing pandemic nudged me to apply for work at a hospital. It seemed like the right thing to do given that I had just spent several years working independently on my art and I had no family to care for. I was honoured to join the frontline workers at a small hospital filling in for another chaplain who was off on maternity leave from January to November of this year. It was a tough job and truly fascinating. It is impossible to share the stories & silences from the very intimate experiences I had with the patients, families and staff at the hospital or the structural shifts that happened in my life as a result. On my days off, since everybody was under lockdown, I had a lot of hours to spend in my studio. This is the only new painting I made this year. A very large four part work on panel that began with a grid of lines and circles and became a puzzle of curves, interlacing imperfectly over geometric lacy constructions. It is very big! I hope that some day I will get to see it on a wall but today I laid it down in the yard behind my art studio in Little Italy in Montréal/ Tio’Tia: Ke and snuck up to my neighbour’s balcony to see it all at once and to take this picture to share with you. We all know that art is something that must be experienced and that little pixels take away the surprise and feeling tone of the true painting but it is the only way that I can share this work with you right now as we are hibernating and hiding from mysterious Omicron. I hope that you stay warm and protected this winter and that you find ways to stay connected. All we have is each other and even those ties that bind will all break eventually. RIP 2021.

the first 20 lines, variable dimensions, sharpie on stationary, 2021