It’s a great love story between Mélanie Giguère and colour. Originally from Quebec, she always knew she wanted to be a painter. Even as a child, she painted, drew, and did arts and crafts for hours on end.
Professionally, she first turned to graphic and fashion design, and season after season, developed her artistic eye by producing new clothing collections inspired by colour, pattern and material trends she saw during her travels around the world.
A new life chapter prompted Mélanie to begin questioning her career choice, and ultimately her beliefs and values. Having children made her realize that she no longer felt at home in her work. “I needed to rediscover myself,” she said. In order to recharge her artistic batteries, she picked up her paintbrushes again. In a natural, almost instinctive way—as if she had never abandoned painting—she found her way back to creation. Her ever-increasing need to create pushed her to speed up the process. She took advanced courses on various techniques and new media, met established artists, visited galleries and experimented daily in her new studio.
As she experimented, she began to work with the canvas itself. With experience in fashion design and fabric manipulation, she decided to work raw canvases, in search of new dimensions. She manipulated them in every possible way: folding and unfolding, stretching and loosening, then pulling and folding them into shapes to create unique bursts of colour and light. Painting and sculpture thus became one. It took her almost a year to perfect this technique, which she calls foldart. “I unroll a long piece of fabric and pin it to the wall. I apply colour, and then create the reliefs,” she explained about her method. The colours come to life thanks to the shapes she creates by folding the fabric. The painting is transformed according to lighting—a real metamorphosis of shadows and lights that meet at every curve.
Mélanie’s creative process is based on well-being. To create new artwork, she immerses herself in a calm and meditative state. No barriers, no interference. Letting go allows her to create freely, without trying to shape or direct her method. This calm, slow and gentle energy permeates her art. She gets inspired by past experiences, both sensory and emotional, but also by her deep desire to move forward; to look to the future, while enjoying the present. The broad horizontal lines in some of her works make us want to do just that.
Mélanie’s art is the sum of all her artistic explorations and life experiences: “My artwork is Mélanie. It’s who I am, it’s how I feel. I feel at peace with who I am and what I do.” The harmony she found in her daily life by balancing family and art is reflected in her works. “My life is now coherent,” she happily told us. We are very pleased to have Mélanie as a Zone member and wish her much success in all her future endeavours.
