this is a non-linear journal-style report of my work, collaborations and reflections over twelve+ years of interwoven creative practices and the ways this is interwoven with thirtysix+ years of living.
2026-05-26 | Making an impression
for me a huge highlight of 2025 was setting up at Fondation Zénon-Alary in Mont Rolland and taking a deep-dive with cosmologist Lucie Baumont and dancer kio flo into the complex and beautiful realm of the Euclid space telescope – how it works, who is making this work happen, and why – bref, exploring the thoughts and theories which guide cosmologists through these complex processes of inquiry at both technical and sociological levels. i won’t go into detail on that now but there are some glimpses here. in a phrase – dark matter matters 😉
this exchange set in motion for me a long-overdue grappling with the broader ecosystem of contemporary research into the nature and structure of the Universe. there is so much exciting and extraordinary work happening in this space (pun intended). there are innumerable instruments and teams around the world asking and finding answers (or hints thereof) to questions i didn’t even know we could formulate. i am in awe to learn how deeply the roots of this work are planted in decades of theoretical soil, and humbled by the types of vantage points people working in this field take for granted in their daily works – from the emergence of the earliest galaxies to the vast superstructures and cosmic flows which ultimately determine who we are as earthlings and how we fit into the biggest pictures.
one research instrument which has been getting the lion’s share of media attention is the James Webb Space Telescope, both successor and contemporary to the Hubble telescope. the fanfare seems to me well merited. an engineering marvel brought to life over twenty-five challenging years, the result is a technologically incredible and aesthetically unique infrared eyeball into the most distant/ancient breadths of our Universe.
Webb’s hexagonal mirrors could decorate a futuristic Pharoah’s tomb, or emerge dripping honey from a hive of intergalactic bees. the origami approach to compacting the telescope for launch and the delicate, patient unfolding en route to Lagrange seems to me as much fine art as science. the sense of emergence, from a decades long process, from a rocket-seed pod, from the dream to gain better, clearer perspective – also evokes a sense of the organic, the living – that these mechanical tools can be seen as extensions of our biosphere and our sense of self as earthborn life forms.
embodied at a near-life scale, this portrait series created spontaneously in february and march of 2026 in the field of l’Usine Rolland in Mont Rolland Quebec, is intended as a hommage to all this. huffing and puffing into the deep and radiant snowscape is my attempt to embody a newfound admiration for a flock of incredible instruments and their scientist shepherds, and the legacy they are leaving within our imaginations, as they invite us to gaze deeper, wider, and to better understand the structures and processes from which we emerge.
this was a first experiment of this particular method of snow sculpture, which im thinking of as impression-ism. it is one of innumerable fruits from the collaborative research and creation process over the past three years with the ephemeristes collective. the countless exchanges, research and celebration with Stan de Saint Quentin and Marie-Eve Fortin (of Archipelle fame) into the fundamental form of snow – the hexagon – and the constituent languages of light and shadow creates the roots for a whole webb (pun also intended) of possibilities of expression within this medium. we have shared much on our social pages and website and there is much more to catch up with and share with you.
bringing Webb back down to earth, weaving it back into the landscape, watching it slowly fade away – for me this process symbolises the implicit role that perspective on time plays in life processes. in all its flawed fragility, its just so precious and i am so damn grateful to be part of it all.
if beauty is in the eye of the beholder, if eyes are windows to the soul – what do these technologies teach us about ourselves?
Video
2026-05-24 | Tension
your heart must have strings
where else could the music come from?
heart strings break from tension and friction
sometimes they simply unwind and let go
catastrophic heart failure
the combined tension, too much
looking back a few years i see how consistently i underestimated the complexity and innumerable nuances of instrument designing and making. i think by necessity, otherwise probably i would never have started, never have tried, and likely wouldn’t have stuck with it.
what i found and find most challenging is grappling with tension, and how to predict it and manage it. there are calculators for string material and diameter and length and pounds per square inch; there are tried and tested models for top woods and thicknesses and grain orientation and tapering; there are wise makers who have been through it for you – watched (and listened) to an instrument they spent hours constructing crack and crumble and self-destruct under its own force. all of that exists to help young lambs like me avoid danger and better orient their work.
so for what reason did i choose to start from the most vulnerable place? to experiment my own designs, with no one manual or planbook to refer to, no constant mentor keeping an eye on my work? practically speaking, for exploring an original design inspiered by multiple instruments, i didn’t quite know who to ask, or how. anyway i didn’t feel like i had the resources to invest properly in that kind of collaboration. and pride’ly speaking, i think i was trying to prove to myself and whoever might notice that i could do something original, maybe even something excellent. and maybe i was externalizing an internal struggle, embodying it in nylon and steel and birchwood, so i could really see it, feel it, grapple with it.
for me, living as an artist means embodying the balancing act of a stringed instrument – to be fragile, raw, vulnerable enough to feel the world deeply – to resonate, to harmonise, to express – while also having the strength, integrity and consistency to survive, to function, maybe even to thrive in it. if an instrument is built too robustly, too structurally, too mechanically, it can’t move, vibrate, resonate at will. if its built too thin, it can’t hold up to the forces – the string tension, the passionate plucking and strumming, the late night bus rides home after a gig in the rain. the wood of an oud in many places hovers around 2mm thick. many harps experience over a ton of force on their soundboards. the creation of instruments dances somewhere between structural engineering and origami.
in Québec there is an expression – ‘t’a plusieurs cordes à ton arc’ – you have numerous strings on your bow – a way of saying, you are polyvalent, you have a diversity of skills. each of those strings brings its own unique voice and diversifies the forms of expressions possible. it also brings its tension. as an artist working between disciplines, each of the ways i can express myself enriches possibilities within the broader pratice, and also introduces challenges, complexities and vulnerabilities. its a balancing act im all at once figuring out, embodying and letting go of…
what failures have you faced in your work & practice?
what are the “unanswered questions” at the core, pulling, drawing, driving your work forward?
do you ever give up? is it from the same place every time, or somewhere different?