A long time ago, when I was only around 18 years old, I started drawing framed works of art within works of art. I would draw the frame with small artworks in them, either on a wall or floating in space. When I look at these old pieces now I can't help but cringe as they look pretty awful to me, but there was potential. I loved the idea but I was doing drawings on paper at the time and it would be quite a while before I would start painting on canvas or wood. When I did start painting years later, I felt like I had to start from scratch with learning to make art, from color pencil drawing to painting acrylics on canvas. I started painting when I moved from my small town of
Robertville (where I grew up with no art supply store) to the city of
Moncton where I started hanging out with a lot of artists, art teachers, at art galleries and at the University Art Department and so on. I also started working at an art store (
the Art Shack) which helped me a great deal in learning about art supplies. Eventually, in 2008, I started exploring the idea of artwork within artworks with pieces like
THIS ONE where I glues a canvas panel onto a stretched canvas. Interesting idea, still very immature, but it never really went anywhere and I moved on to other things. Then ten years later, in 2018, I had been living in Montreal for years by then. My girlfriend at the time, now my wife
Kristal and I were invited to exhibit in a group exhibition featuring artwork on skateboards. Contemplating about what to do, I found this old frame I had laying around and the idea hit me. I painted
THE PIECE. Little did I know that this little new idea, fed from very old ideas, would become so important in my artistic journey in finally finding my voice. However, the show went on and I did not make another piece like it again for years. Then soon after my wife and I had our first born Emma, we got married and moved from Montreal to New-Brunswick where I did not make a lot of art for a while. I went throught a phase of painting children in childish drawings between 2015 and 2020 when I hit a wall and I wasn't too sure what I wanted to paint anymore. All I knew is that I was longing to find a voice that would help me to be more consistent in my work. I always suffered from having too many ideas, painting them all in a consistent style is not easy. In 2021, a relative commissioned a work of art and told me to paint what I wanted. I always liked landscape and longed to do more but I felt like I had something more profound to talk about. That is when I got the idea. I had done something like it with the skateboard in 2018, and I had layed out the idea of framed artwork within artwork at the age of 17-18, now I found how to approach it. My approach to art was always that there is more to life or to what we are looking at than meets the eye. I always wanted to paint my often exagerated persective on things. The idea hit me that I need to paint the concept that there is more to what we are looking at by painting artwork within artwork and having actual physical frames in my paintings (like the skateboard). My first attempt was this commissioned, "carte blanche" painting:
Acrylic on Stretched Canvas & Canvas Panel
16" x 20"
2021
Little did I know how complicated these pieces would be. They are the toughest pieces I have ever had to make, but I welcome the challenge and I shall be painting art withint art from now on.
If you want to learn more about my artistic journey, be patient for I have been working on a longer version that I will link in here when it is done!
