A ZIPPER AT THE BORDER

Sometimes I start with an idea that evolves in a totally different direction because I like to keep my mind open to life's influences, including current events. If it takes only a few weeks or months to finish a work, the final result usually stays close to my initial vision. But if it takes years, by the time I’m done, I'm a totally different person. Most of my cells have obviously regenerated by then. 

I recently finished a painting that originated with characters I created digitally in 2021. I often chop up or modify digital works with various filters in other apps. In the image below, I used a mirror app, which invariably led to symmetry.

A few years later, the spooky eyes of these characters continued to haunt me. I decided to create another version on canvas. While the digital interpretation is more mysterious and subdued, the final painting is an "in your face" political statement. 

I started by roughly laying out the heads and transforming the central split into a zipper. I decided not to make the overlapping heads transparent as in the digital piece. No ghosts this time, solid characters only. 

The progress shots below show quite a range of colours since they weren’t taken under ideal lighting conditions, but they give a general idea of the process. 

 

I wanted the area surrounding the zipper to resemble an impenetrable stone wall. Using acrylic paste and an old credit card, I managed to create a convincing illusion. 

Then I painted cracks into the surface, knowing I’d later return to refine or soften them as needed.

The sky was too gray and depressing so I transformed it with a dark tonal blue, adding, as Bob Ross might say, happy little clouds (which later drifted away).

During that time, I alternated between staring at the painting and watching news reports of people being targeted for deportation down south. I was horrified to see individuals rounded up like cattle for what seemed to be obscure or fundamentally unjust reasons. 

Historically, stocks were used to punish those who didn’t toe the line. It seems governments prefer obedient, robotic citizens. I pilloried my central character by painting hands reaching out from the wall and adding chains in blue and red. At first, they looked too much like bungee cords, too playful, so I reworked them into metallic brass and silver restraints.

The sky went through yet more transformations, and the happy little clouds disappeared entirely. 

Detail of the chained right hand

My poor central character was trapped in the stocks for so long that a dandelion grew through a crack in the wall to cling to his chained right hand.  

I kept refining the zipper and its pull.

After some fine tuning, the faces became more textured and expressive. One character ended up wearing a barbed wire crown as the sky turned wild.

Here I am with the finished work, revealing its true scale.

The painting is currently on display in a group exhibition titled "Liens et ruptures" at Gueulart artist run centre in St-Isidore. I'm one of nine visual artists and one musician who have been meeting on a regular basis to exchange and plan future shows and performances together.

Other members of the group include Claudine Ascher, Jacques Bossé, Allan Hessler, Beverley Wight, Geneviève Sideleau, Nasco Kafadarow, Susan Fowler, and Lisa Kimberly Glickman. Original music is written and performed by Jim Robinson. 

The show runs until November 16, 2025. It has been a wonderful way for us to grow, both individually and as a collective.