Curious Nature
Some years ago, I had the pleasure of spending a holiday on L’Isle-Verte. The memory of this short visit stayed with me. It started when we crossed the island on a bicycle because, on the island, visitors aren’t permitted to use cars. I still have the ride in my head, the landscape rolling by on each side. The colorful houses, the fields flowered in purple, pink and yellow; the river and the sky meeting at the horizon, the small smoking chimneys along the strand – so many images that for me represent beauty, freedom and all that soothes me. The island honors and reveals its heritage in a way not often found in places visited by tourists. One has the feeling of opening a crack in the space-time continuum and being suspended there with no need to know the date or the time.
A few years later, looking for a topic to create a work for the Rendez-vous des arts in St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, I was inspired by the photos from this trip. They brought me back to this wonderful day of biking and a stop in front of some curious sheep as they came to see us. This the subject of my piece Curious Nature.
I wanted to create a work where the present meets the past, where life flows through the cultural heritage and where heritage withstands the test of time. That is why I mixed modern and traditional quilting techniques. The center is made by assembling pieces of fabric in a random manner, without a pattern, and the sheep are made using different fabrics and lace and then appliquéing them in place. I wanted this part to represent the present and life to be figurative but real. On the other hand, the border is made of traditional quilt blocks reflecting the traditional feeling of the island. It is the story of this bike ride told in an abstract way and which expresses these beautiful images I still have in mind.
