During a family outing to the lovely town of Sutton in southern Quebec, we happened into the Galerie Farfelu de Sutton. The four of us – Cathleen, Isabel, Wyva and I – trooped into the compact space and browsed around. In a small nook behind the cashier I discovered a “shrine” to the artists Brigite Normandin and was instantly taken in. A painter by training, that is what I saw first: a large painting that had been cut up and “disassembled,” a violent portrayal of the forced displacement visited upon the indigenous peoples of the north as vast oil reserves were discovered in the upper provinces. And then, beneath this alluring and repulsive canvas, “the alter.”

Simple in its presentation, a series of five small “boxes:” black framed assemblages composed with such technical perfection and lustrous presentation. Each measured about 10-inches x 8-inches in the interior, the black frame nearly an inch and a half all the way around. Within the frames a world of play composed of old toys, bits of hardware, tools, scraps of paper and wood along with various odds and ends combined with such compact precision – of line, composition, proportion, tone and texture – to create a tiny symmetrical universe, a vignette from what must be a delightful story.

Sadly, I did not have my journal in hand and so could not take a good set of notes. Instead, this entry will have to serve as a footnote as I seek out more about this modestly priced artist’s outstanding works. Stay tuned!