Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Solo Exhibition



Upcoming Solo Exhibition at Gallery Massarelli Design in the Belgo Building for the month of October. Opening hours are Monday to Friday 9am until 5pm.

Vernissage date is to be confirmed, but most likely on friday, October 1st, 2010. It will be a cocktail, so please dress appropriately. 1 free glass of wine or beer (additional drinks by donation), plus h'orderves, & a door prize.

Vernissage & cocktail are by reservation only because of very limited capacity; there will be 2 time slots that you can choose from to reserve your place on the guest list. Please RSVP asap.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

August Henna Party

August Henna Party 
Time:  Friday, 27 August · 13:30 - 21:00
Location:  Downtown Montreal, my studio & home.
By appointment only, prices start at $10. 
"Party-Style", non-traditional application, 
henna lasts between 5 days up to 10 days.

Henna at Open Mind Eco Festival 2010


Appointments will overlap with each other; so know you are welcome to hang around with the other gals & boyz. Snacks & drinks include popcorn & tea. You are welcome to bring your own wine or rum or other alcohol. There will be movies & music according to the mood of the group. Come and lounge on the giant pillows, or sit with your drink on the porch, or at the table and enjoy.

Prices for the henna start at $10, depending on how fancy the henna is that you choose. There are no minimum's for this event, as it's open house. If you have any questions please feel free to leave comment. Please email privately for appointment & address. 



This is the 2nd henna party I am hosting. I am planning to host one once a month, so if you miss this henna party, you can always plan to come to the next one!

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Super Heroes! Montreal Pride Parade 2010


- Quote from Wikipedia."Pride parades for the LGBT community (also known as gay pride parades, pride events and pride festivals) are events celebrating lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) culture. The events also at times serve as demonstrations for legal rights such as same-sex marriage. Most pride events occur annually and many take place around June to commemorate the Stonewall riots, a pivotal moment in the modern LGBT rights movement." 

Brief history of the Stonewall Riots:
"Early on the morning of Saturday, 28 June 1969, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning persons rioted following a police raid on the Stonewall Inn in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City.[1] The Stonewall Inn was a gay bar which catered to an assortment of patrons, but which was popular with the most marginalized people in the gay community: transvestites, transgender people, effeminate young men, hustlers, and homeless youth. The Stonewall riots are generally considered to be the beginning of the modern gay rights movement, as it was the first time in modern history that a significant body of LGBT people resisted arrest." - quote from Wikipedia.

Pride is a parade that happens in almost every country in the world including: Canada, USA, Oceania, Australia, Turkey, Spain, Slovenia, Serbia, Russia, Poland, Netherlands, Lithuania, Latvia, Bulgaria, England, Taiwan, Philippines, Israel,  India and South Africa. What I found unique and exciting about Montreal's cultural diversity is that pretty much all of these countries were represented in our parade.


This is the float for Gayradiobec.
Sunday just past, I worked the Montreal Pride Parade. It was my first time and alot of fun. The parade this year started very close to my house, over at St.Marc, along Rene Levesque. I thought this was a great idea since it I think it will help heterosexual society have more acceptance of the LGBT community. 

On a side note, something I find interesting is that the 1st Nations Communities traditionally consider LGBT individuals to be "two feathered" which translates to "twice blessed". It is considered that these individuals have extra blessings to be special in this way and so it is traditionally honored, most modern native people still feel this way (at least based on my experiences from the periods in my life when I was much closer to the native communities then I am here in Montreal). 

Cantelli's back, painted by artist, Elissa Baltzer.
For Pride 2010, I worked with Gayradiobec.com.  We painted DJ Marc Landreville & a performing artist by the name of Cantelli, who would be in the parade as a part of the Gayradiobec float. 

The theme for this year's parade was “super heroes”. I couldn't do all the work by myself for the time we had to do it in, so I enlisted the help of my artist friend  Elissa Baltzer. This was Elissa's first full body painting, although she has alot of experience as a face painter & fine artist. Our 2 superheroes were to be “radio men”.
Artist Elissa Baltzer with performer Cantelli during the parade.

Originally Elissa and I wanted to work mutually on both pieces so that our styles and skills would merge and we could equally say both pieces were ours, but just due to time constraints, we ended up not being able to paint in everything we wanted to from our original concept, as well as we ended up focusing more on just one piece. I focused on Marc and Elissa focused Cantelli, my fiancée Ziggy assisted both of us with base coats and a few touch ups. Despite anyways in which we wanted to add more to the art, we were still happy with the results.



Marc from Gayradiobec, with an old fashioned microphone as his emblem.


The parade itself was so light, full of really happy and excited people. The people on the side lines were also very receptive, fun loving and excited, many viewers came out to the parade who were from the heterosexual population; it was great to see so many supporters! I look forward to participating in next year's pride!  

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Festivals, parades & henna parties!

Musician & Composer Joseph Ruel
So it's been a while since I last updated. I actually have 5 different blogs I started writing several weeks ago that I have not had time to finish and another countless in my mind.... Time moves quickly and events happen so fast they can sometimes be a mental blur.


Face painting at Open Mind Eco Festival on a rainy sunday afternoon.

I will post about most of the events I have done recently when I have more time to think and write it out properly. Upcoming articles will include going back to the Fantasia Festival, recently I have hosted a henna party (another coming up in a few weeks), prepared wedding henna, attended 2 weddings, worked at the Open Mind Eco Festival for a week, Otakuthon...

Pride 2010


... and today, with the help of artist Elissa Baltzer and assistance from Ziggy, we body painted Cantelli & Marc from Gay Radio Quebec for the Pride Parade. I have never participated in the pride before and I have to say it was tons of fun! Stories coming soon.


Henna at Open Mind Eco Festival
 August Henna Party 
Time:  27 August · 13:30 - 21:00
Location:  Downtown Montreal, my studio & home.
I am hosting another henna body art party out of my studio & home on friday, August 27th, by appointment only.

Appointments will overlap with each other; so know you are welcome to hang around with the other gals & boyz. Snacks & drinks include popcorn & tea. You are welcome to bring your own wine or rum or other alcohol. There will be movies & music according to the mood of the group. Come and lounge on the giant pillows, or sit with your drink on the porch, or at the table and enjoy.

Prices for the henna start at $10, depending on how fancy the henna is that you choose. There are no minimum's for this event, as it's open house. If you have any questions please feel free to leave comment. Please email privately for appointment & address.