THE HURRICANE OF TIME - WORKING TOGETHER

We're done! 

From November 24, 2025 until our unveiling on the 18th of February 2026, Monica Brinkman and I created an installation for an art residency awarded to us by the CACVS (Conseil des arts et de la culture de Vaudreuil-Soulanges). Our project? The Hurricane of Time (L'Ouragan du temps). It was quite a ride.

We had worked together before in 2018 to create La Placoteuse, an artwork for the Les Arts et la Ville convention in Vaudreuil-Dorion, but never on a project that lasted this long. Our journey was one of discovery on many levels. We got to know each other better, creatively and emotionally.

Our approach to art making is similar. We work intuitively and by association. The studio space we occupied quickly took on a Francis Bacon flair. We used a hurricane of materials in a perpetual mess. How often did we hear each other say "Where's that brush? Where's the glue? Do you know where the Dioxazine Violet or Quinacridone Red is?" It was pure sitcom material. 

Monica wasn't crazy about technical names for things and came up with alternative appellations. "Where's my eye stabber?" meant an awl and "Where's the get out of the way paint?" referred to interference colours.

 

Seems I'm not the only one who talks to herself while working either. How many times did I ask Monica, "What did you say?" only to hear a familiar response, "I was talking to myself". It's a well-known fact that concepts become much clearer when you say them out loud. So much for the theory that says it's okay to talk to yourself as long as you don't answer yourself. I answer myself all the time and so does Monica and we're perfectly sane.

 

WE 

-laughed, swore, shared our frustrations, fears, the ups and downs of our lives,  

-started building our hurricane a bit haphazardly but quickly began to feed on each other's ideas, 
-soon discovered that time is a complex, multilayered subject. 

Here is one side of the eye of our hurricane. 

The reverse side reveals a more realistic bloodshot and tired looking eye. Need I add that we finished this version towards the end of our residency?
 

More photos to come in a future post. 

I’m twenty years older than Monica and worked very hard to keep up with her energy output. This entailed buying ready-made meals for supper and taking lots of Tylenol to manage my aches and pains. I’ve learned that if I undertake a project of this magnitude again, I’ll need to stock up on freezer food and get into exceptional physical shape beforehand. The latter is, of course, impossible. Joint pain rarely decreases with age.

The soreness was worth it. We’re happy with the final result although we could have used much more time to achieve everything we envisioned. Ideas kept flowing right up until the end. We explored time in all its layers but in the end it reminded us who’s in charge.