Alentejo Alentejo

23 décembre 2014

Eh ben... trois mois déjà que je suis au Portugal, et c'est aujourd'hui seulement que je me décide à vous écrire.

Aujourd'hui, oui.

Parce qu'avant j'étais pas sûre.
J'étais pas sûre, j'étais pas prête, j'étais dans le jus, j'étais toutes sortes d'affaires, mais surtout j'étais pas sûre - pas sûre de tripper tant que ça.

Pas que mon quotidien soit triste, remarquez.  À Caparica, j'ai l'océan tout près, et la plage et le bon vin et le poisson frais et tout...  Mais bon, ça reste une station balnéaire.  Et ça reste la banlieue, et ça reste la vie d'étudiante, et tout ça me laisse perplexe par moments.

Heureusement y'a Lisbonne juste de l'autre côté de la rivière.  Et Lisbonne c'est génial.  Ça s'étend en maisons blanches et pastels qui s'étiolent vers le ciel pour mieux garder dans l'ombre le dédale de ruelles étroites pavées de pierres blanches en dessous, comme un village qui aurait accidentellement un peu trop poussé, et ça roule de colline en colline et ça vibre et ça ondule et ça module du matin au soir, du soir au matin.

Enfin, c'est génial, quoi!

Mais n'empêche, j'étais pas sûre.

Jusqu'à il y a deux jours.

Début des vacances de Noël, enfin le moment de sortir un peu de chez moi et de voir du pays.  Plus ou moins au hasard, j'ai choisi de partir pour l'Alentejo, près de la frontière Espagnole.

Coup de foudre.  Total.  À en avoir le coeur qui se serre.

Juste........... wow. 

C'est comme si le Portugal me déballait d'un seul coup tout ce qu'il avait de meilleur à offrir: les paysages, les montagnes, l'air vif, la bonne bouffe, les petits villages tout blancs qui apparaissent au milieu de nulle part, le rythme lent, les traditions bien vivantes, les gens souriants, les vieilles dames taquines... c'est absolument désarmant.  Et ça sent, ça sent... ça sent je ne sais pas quoi exactement, mais ça me ramène tout droit à mon premier voyage en Europe il y a 12 ans et c'est follement enivrant.

Ça sent la lune de miel, peut-être...

Je n'étais pas sûre d'aimer le Portugal - maintenant je le suis.

Et c'est avec grand, grand plaisir que j'y plante mes racines pour toute l'année à venir.

Je vous souhaite à tous un très Joyeux Noël où que vous soyez, et une année 2015 remplie de lunes de miel inattendues, de bonne bouffe et de vieilles dames taquines!

_____________________________________________

Hm... it's been three months already since I moved to Portugal.  Wow.  It took me that long to finally find the drive to write to you.
I guess I just wasn't sure.
Wasn't sure, wasn't ready, was too busy, was whatever-other-good-reason, but mostly wasn't sure - wasn't sure how I actually felt about Portugal.

Not that I have anything in particular to complain about hey.  Caparica's right on the coast, I've got the ocean just down the road, and the beach and the cheap wine and the fresh fish and all that...  But still, a resort town's a resort town, y'know.  And a suburb is a suburb, and university is university, and at times it all leaves me a bit perplexed.
Thankfully Lisbon's just across the river, and Lisbon is so awesome... the way it sprawls kinda randomly in every direction and rolls from one hill to the next like a village that would have accidentally grown out of hands, its white and pastel houses stretching toward the sky keeping the narrow cobbled streets below in the shade, bustling and undulating and vibrating from sunrise to sunset, from sunset to sunrise.
Really cool.
Yet... well, I just wasn't sure.

Until two days ago.
Which is when the Christmas break began - first time I actually have time to go out and explore the country a little.  Kinda fortuitously, I chose to go to Alentejo, near the Spanish border.

Love.At.First.Sight.

Hit me square in the face, in the heart, in the gut.
Just........... wow.

It's like Portugal's showing off all the best it has to offer all at once: gorgeous hilly countryside, peaceful white villages, medieval castles, fantastic foods, slow pace, proud and welcoming people, cheeky old ladies... it's absolutely disarming.

And the smell, the smell... I couldn't tell you exactly what it is, but it brings me right back to my first trip in Europe 12 years ago and that's weirdly intoxicating.

Maybe that's the smell of honeymoon?

I wasn't sure before how I felt about Portugal, but now I am: I LOVE it.

And I am really looking forward to spending the whole of next year here.

Merry Christmas to you all, wherever you are!
May 2015 be filled with unexpected honeymoons, fantastic foods and cheeky old ladies!!

Il pleut

20 novembre 2014

Il pleut.
Il pleut, il pleut, il pleut, il pleut.
Fort, sans arrêt, comme un orage éternel.  C'est l'hiver, me dit-on.
Les vagues ont englouti la plage, peu à peu s'infiltrent dans la ville, dans les ruelles, dans mon hall d'entrée.  Pas grand refuge sous les palmiers.
L'eau dégouline en abondance le long des murs de l'atelier, on y travaille dans le noir de peur de caraméliser tous les fusibles.

C'est l'hiver, c'est novembre, c'est moche.
Entre une chaufferette portative et un verre de porto je cherche un peu de réconfort.

Verre, soleil et sardines

7 septembre 2014

Eh bien voilà, après 4 ans de sédentarité......... je repars!
Ou plutôt je retourne: retourne en Europe, retourne aux sources, retourne aux études.

Et cette fois-ci j'emporte le verre avec moi.

Je m'envole dans une semaine pour le Portugal, pour y faire un maîtrise en art et science du verre.  Juste au sud de Lisbonne, en bordure d'océan, vinho verde, porto, sardines grillées.

D'emblée, ça promet!

_____________________________________________

Well, this is it, after 4 years of sedentariness.......... I'm leaving again!

Or rather, I'm returning: returning to Europe, returning to the source, returning to school.

And this time, glass is coming along.
  

I'm flying out to Portugal in a week, to pursue a Master's degree in glass art and science.

Just south of Lisbon, by the ocean, vinho verde, port wine, grilled sardines.

Feelin' the love already!

Amélie moule: mai

13 juin 2014

Ça y est, ma bourse de moulage a pris fin avec l'arrivée du mois de juin... voici donc le sixième et dernier chapitre d'Amélie moule.  Bonne lecture!

"Well... this is it, the six months of the grant are over.
Over already.
Time has gone so incredibly fast...

When I look back, my first instinct is mild panic, a sort of oh-my-god-what-was-I-thinking-I-haven't-remotely-done-enough-how-could-I-be-so-wasteful feeling.  But then my brains kick in (thankfully) and say "hey, relax girl and look at the numbers".

Oh right, the numbers...  Let's see.  More than 2300 hours of firing over the course of 6 months.  That's an average of 12,5 hours of firing a day, including holidays and weekends and everything.

I... how did I............... I mean, really??

There is so much peace of mind to be found in numbers.

Yet, as I am turning the page on this pretty big chapter in my life and career, my mind tends to drift into nostalgia a little - and I've got the perfect piece of music to set the mood:

(If I could choose my voice, it would be hers, unquestionably.)

First, a few words about May...  In short, it's been tough.  Both physically and mentally.  The "last month" factor combined with the fact that I have to come up with a solo really put on the pressure, and I ended up working insane amounts, throwing myself in every direction and struggling to find focus.  Silly mistakes were made, things had to be redone 2-3 times, crooked pieces kept coming out of perfectly straight molds, there were tears and frustration and "poetry attacks" as you like to call them... but then time ran out and I had to stop redoing things over and over again and just accept them the way they were.
And it was like the clouds had suddenly parted.
My mindset completely shifted, I felt a profound love for all my "crooked" pieces and realised that they were actually truly beautiful.  And isn't it the most wonderful part of art making, to accidentally find beauty within the flaws of your own creations?

Here are a few pictures - do tell me what you think...

Nature morte 1: Psyché

 Nature morte 2: Éphéméride

  Nature morte 3: Élégie

And while we're at it, I'm also adding pictures of a few mold-blown pieces I've been working on recently, which were more like exploratory projects but interesting nonetheless:

Le rêve - variations sur le thème

Métamorphose

Looking back on the past year as a whole, on everything that the grant you've given me has allowed me to achieve, all I can say is: thank you.  Thank you so, so, so, so much.  I don't think I'm exaggerating if I say that it has absolutely changed my life as an artist.

I've grown beyond my wildest dreams.

I've built my self-confidence.

I've improved my technical skills, my understanding of the material, my artistic vocabulary.

I've had fun, I've cried, I've failed, I've succeeded, I've experienced the entire emotional spectrum.

And I've even started to find poetry.

So from the bottom of my heart, thank you!

Much love, 

Amelie"

Amélie moule: mars

14 avril 2014

Et voici les nouvelles d'Amélie en moulage, édition de mars... bonne lecture!

"How have you been?

It feels like such a long time since I last wrote to you...  Maybe my little holiday in the US prior to the Chicago conference has something to do with it.  Traveling solo, visiting old friends, reconnecting, New York, Indianapolis, Chicago, overnight buses, peanuts for dinner, long walks, soar feet... feeling free... it stirred a lot of things inside.  My mind has been a little out of focus since then and I've somewhat lost track of time...

I remember a particularly unexpected moment of bliss, waking up on the bus in the middle of the night just on time to see Philadelphia's nightscape slowly unfold before my eyes, as if it had been waiting for me, tall and beautiful and calm, and for a minute everything felt in its right place.
And so this month I've chosen a piece of music which, to me, echoes that moment :

(Side note: Anish Kapoor's Cloud Gate is one of the most brilliant things I've ever seen.)

Workwise, Chicago meant meeting people, buying tools, finding inspiration and new ideas, but it also meant missing almost 2 weeks in the studio, so I haven't been quite as productive as I normally am (... still, no regrets!).  I've mainly focused on finishing pieces and resuming a variety of ongoing tests.  The tests I won't talk about right now because they will likely be at the heart of my work for May and I want to keep you in suspense til then.  (Hehehe...)

I will, however, talk about the two pieces I've finished, for they leave me a bit perplexed.

First there's the lady-and-octopi piece of course, which you know well by now.  It was already almost finished back in January so essentially all I had left to do was clean it up and give it a lot of loving coldworking care - which I did.  The final result, I must say, looks very much like what I had imagined, and reveals a level of technical control that I didn't even know I had.  There are tons of little things in that piece that I'm happy about.  And yet... somehow I'm not feeling the love.  Despite all the time and care I gave to that piece, it leaves me rather indifferent.  And I really don't know what to think about that.
Perplexity, stage 1.

The other piece, the feet vessels ("Learning to fly"), is the opposite.  I love that piece.  It's so delicate and light, airy almost... there's a sensitivity and a tactile quality to it that I really like.  I feel like it's very "me", perhaps more so than anything I've done so far.  And yet... I feel almost embarrassed to admit that I like that piece.  It's super (too?) simple, it's full of technical flaws, and nobody except me seems to find it particularly interesting.  And once again, I'm not too sure how to interpret that.

Perplexity, stage 2.

So as you can see, this past month has left me questioning myself a lot, and my work too.  Which, I'm sure, is a perfectly normal and healthy thing for an artist, but still an uncomfortable place to be.  With only one month left to my scholarship, it'll be interesting to see what other stages of perplexity I'll go through and what'll come out of it all.
Hopefully being off balance is just a clumsy way to take a step forward?

A story to be continued...

Take care,

Amélie"

Amélie moule: janvier

18 février 2014

Mesdames et messieurs, voici les dernières nouvelles d'Amélie en moulage!

"How have you been?

You know when you look at your schedule, and every day and every evening is booked for weeks and weeks to come, and your to-do lists just keep getting longer and longer (yes, lists with an "s"...  I am a compulsive list-maker).
And then something gets cancelled last minute, and you suddenly find yourself with an accidental free evening ahead of you.

... Ahhhhhhhhhhh.

Pajamas, fleece, big woolen socks, couch, music, chocolate, hot tea.

The perfect setting to reflect back on January and send you my little update...

So as to perpetuate the tradition, let's start with a bit of music to set the mood :

So, January...
January has been... tentacular, if you know what I mean!
I spent most of the month working on casting my wax sculpture of the lady with 2 octopuses.  A challenging project for sure, which has taught me some very valuable life lessons.  Such as :

  - a good, solid formwork is a very reassuring thing indeed

  - GOD does plaster set fast (... but you know that story already)

  - panic is futile

  - 25kg is heavy, ask for help

  - plaster: hard ; plaster after firing: extra hard ; glass: breakable ; tentacle: gone ; ....... damn.

  - unbeveled glass chips, really easily (and irreversibly, for that matter)

Oh well... you learn!  And isn't it interesting how mistakes often bring about new ideas?  (Well, with a little help from you guys.)

Here are a few pictures of the piece as it is right now.

It still needs quite a bit of cleaning and coldworking, but so far I have to say I am very, very pleased with the result (especially considering the plaster pouring incident).  The piece has beautiful luminosity, it didn't devitrify, there are almost no bubbles (?!!) and not a single draw...
Now all I need to do is remember to be that extra careful while handling and coldworking it, and everything should be fine.

... Or maybe more like extra extra careful.

And while my sculpture was being cast, I made garlic bulbs (for the piece I sold to the city of Montreal).  Fifty of them.  F-i-f-t-y.  From A to Z.

Ask me how fed up I am with making those...
Still, better than working in an office hey!

I also made a few quick test-moulds to blow into, which I used last week actually.  It's something I'd wanted to try for ages, and it turned out to be great fun!  I am definitely going to try that again.  I don't have any pictures of the blown pieces, but here's what the wax models looked like.  (And I'd never realized I had such big feet.  Couldn't fill the mold all the way to the top when I blew into it, with 3 gathers!)

It's been interesting working on a big piece and on small "just-for-fun" projects all in the same month.  Very Yin-Yang.  I found it to be a good balance for me actually.
You learn a lot through both, but on different scales and in different ways.

So, note to self :  the fun stuff is important too, girl (on top of being fun!), remember that.

Well, I guess that's it for now!

Until April...

Take care,

Amélie"

2013 Karma

2 janvier 2014

" Cher Karma,

C'est moi, Amélie.
Écoute, je sais qu'on est très occupés tous les deux et qu'on a rarement l'occasion de se parler, mais là c'est la nouvelle année et puis, ben... je voulais te dire merci.  Je t'ai mis un sacré gros contrat entre les mains en 2013 avec la fin de mes études et le début de ma vie d'artiste professionnelle, et franchement, t'as géré.  Les bourses, les honneurs, le prix François-Houdé, l'acquisition d'une de mes pièces par la ville de Montréal... je n'en demandais pas tant!
Je présume que c'est ta façon de me dire que je suis à ma place.

J'en prends bonne note.

Bon, après ben, c'est sûr qu'y'a jamais rien de parfait.  Pendant qu'on travaille à fond sur ma carrière toi et moi, c'est ma vie personnelle - et amoureuse surtout - qui en prend un coup.  'Tite année ben plate.  Mais j't'en veux pas, je sais bien que c'est pas facile de la trouver l'aiguille dans la botte de foin, même pour toi.

Ou alors c'est ta façon de me dire qu'y'est pas encore temps.

J'en prends bonne note aussi.

Pour 2014, si tu voulais me faire un bon mix de verre, de voyages et de belles amitiés, je serais comblée!
Dis-moi, Lisbonne, ça te brancherait?

La bise,

Amélie "

____________________________________________

" Dear Karma,

It's me, Amelie.

I know we're both super busy and we hardly ever get the chance to catch up, but it's New Years and, well, I just really wanted to say thanks.  I gave you one hell of a challenge in 2013 with my graduation and the beginning of my career as a glass artist, and you totally nailed it.  Grants, honorable mentions, awards of all kinds, I even sold a piece to the city of Montreal... I mean, you have outdone yourself!

I guess that's your way of telling me that I'm on the right path hey.

Roger that.

Well, of course not everything's perfect.  While we're both working overtime on my career, my personal life - and more specifically my love life - is paying the price.  The past year's been pretty lame in that respect to be honest.  But I don't blame you, I know the needle in the haystack is hard to find, even for you.

Or maybe that's your way of telling me that the time's not ripe yet.

Sure, Roger that too.

For 2014, if you could just give me a well-balanced mix of glass, travels and friendships, I'd be very content!

Hey, how about Portugal maybe?

Take care, 
 

Amelie "