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TEXTS ON ART : Image number img135.
From page 321 to page 360.


PAGE 321

sometimes…Dam submission! It seems sometimes that she is going from
one slaver to another: from Arlette (mother) to the University!
With all ''reasonable'' due respect that I can recognize to one as the other!
But we can still not help thinking what we think anyway.

But here is the ‘’coup d’État: Marie-Claire has
turned about!

Me, I ‘’interpret’’ coldly: don’t tell me that the tastes of Marie-Claire
are not worth as ‘’much’’ as those of the first ass-hole that TEACHES! ! !''

----------------------------------------

(Bio., page: 1646) (May 16, 1985)

***** (Another excerpt from the letter to Michael.)

‘’...It was during this conversation that she told me that Art could at least serve
to ''unwind''. I was not arguing too much that day, I had neither the strength nor
the heart. But I have KNOWN since a long time, let us say ... the POWERS
of Art not to know ''that in unwinding'' in that way we are ALWAYS ''also''
doing something else ... I do not know how but unlike other activities, Art
MODIFIES the ''artisan''... Anyway, I told myself, she will see it herself soon
enough if she continues to dabble in-that-magic-that-works!''

----------------------------------------

(Bio., page: 1647) (May 16, 1985)

***** (Another excerpt from the letter to Michael.)

‘’...I NOW know perfectly well what I want to say, but my problem is that
I do not know how to say it’’.

So that was the cat in her bag!

So, I told her ‘’with a strait face(we were all very attentive and serious for a moment):
''Excuse me, Marie Claire, but could I

PAGE 322

ask you a question?''
''Of course, she said, what?''
''Hey, well, according to your idea, what is the life of an artist; I mean, in everyday life.
The job side of art. At what do artists spend their day who produce full time. What in
fact do they actually do from evening to morning in the life of every day, according to
your idea?''

Having understood the question I put to her, she realized that in truth she had never
thought of it. But now that I was asking… she noticed that she did not know how
they spend their time exactly ...

She still did not understand, but by my smile, she suspected that I had an idea in mind.

I took advantage of the fact that I had the attention of the room and the spotlight on
me to savour the moment. Quietly and theatrically, I got up walking up and down to
position myself for my Shakespearean reply, I said with the syllables and the silences
well placed in measures:
''To seek and invent THINGS so others can see what they want to say....!''

Like ‘’what’’ I had just SHOWEN had just begun to appear in her mind
(I followed it on her face), just for fun: I drove in the nail by adding, on a
completely different tempo ‘’very social and very ingeniously and scientifically-
sure-of-myself’’:
''To my thinking, Marie-Claire, you might not possibly ever be able to continue
to study, because you are irretrievably infected by the disease; you are caught
in the gears: you're an artist for the better and for the worse. Good or lousy you
have no choice, you must accept yourself. It is already too late !’’’’

----------------------------------------

(Bio., page: 1670) (May 18, 1985)

***** (From a letter to Michael.)

...''Robert admitted with me that on ''one side'',
''THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IN THE LIFE OF A PERSON 'IS
THE JUDGMENT OF HIS OWN PEER''

PAGE 323

do you not agree?

Holding the ‘’Flowers of Evil’’ (Baudelaire) in my hand, I say to Robert:

''This is my first Honoris Causa degree.
Look at this object: it is NOW the Judgment of the
citizens of my street.
After the years passed and completed,
despite moments of love and hate
of credulity and betrayal,
of envy as of jealousy
today: the judge,
of everything I said, of everything I hushed,
of all that I have done, dreamed,
of what I could AND of what I could ‘’not’’.
They say TODAY that one in another,
that my god is the True God,
because the beauty of which I speak
illuminates the lives of those who
have heard speak of it EVEN
if we DO NOT SEE IT...
they forgive me all my lies,
what REMAINS for them lies
because my lies
still give them something
that common sense alone had
never given them.''

They SEE my Beauty even if it does not exist… like my Fugitive Chair ...

What I say about ‘’all this’’ is that they are telling me to continue to ''
not understand the world AS I do not want to understand it.''
I say that, ''Marie-Claire has signified it to me having JUDGED by herself,
that she is not ALONE for whom Beauty counts''...
She wants to inform me ‘’that according to her, it is not only the children
who hear the stories of dreams like I have often shown her and that I believe them ...''
Note that ‘’for youths ONLY’’, that has always sufficed to me for it to
''be worthwhile'' to be painted or tolled ...

PAGE 324

‘’but’’ I am not one voice ''outside of the situation, the inter-relational situation''
even if I speak-in-the-desert ...
and anxiety beset my mind as to the validity of my mind and my Vision of
things ... all things ...
I see that the more I grow older, the worse it gets: i.e. ''the more it is ALL I
see differently'' that everybody ...

Nobody says anything to children and the elderly, thus I say what I can…
anything maybe, but at least ''something''... it seems to me that a person
must be addressed ''personally'' from time to time to live...

‘’But’’ I am neither spoken to ‘’personally’’... it obviously affects me ... a lot ...

‘’But’’ ... if Marie Claire on top of speaking to me personally, CLAIMS
that there is some value to know me and to hear what I SHOW and claiming
to see it also sometimes, even if my hands are in fact… generally quite empty ... ...
The microscopes of this century are not very good to see the things that I say
exist ...

If this is my part of the ''degree'' that she brought me here ... then: I am not mad
nor of a ''bad influence’’ ... what I show,
no one has seen it, that is true, but it is a magic-that-works, those who follow
the direction where I clam that things are ... get degrees among other things,…
that they would never have believed to be for them... even if what I promise
does not come ‘’very quickly’’ in fact...

In any case, the case is not yet ''clear'' altogether.
But anyway I know that the ''debate'' is re-launched since the ‘’Return of Marie-Claire.’’

And NOTHING can ever make me ‘’EVEN’’ with Marie-Claire for what
she HAS done for me in coming back into my life at Christmas as she did this year!

But who would want to be ‘’even on everything’’ with anyone?
I have been waiting for a long time, and hoping that I would be given
something with a GLOBAL SENSE: it is priceless to me!

PAGE 325

So, therefore, Michael, that is why I have been telling you all week :
''I think that something important happened to me on the weekend ...''''

----------------------------------------

(Bio., page: 1746) (May 23, 1985)

***** (From a letter to her mother.)

***** (The following is a quote where Monique, in a letter, answers to her
mother who had made the remark that she ''was not taking enough care of
her career'':)
‘’...And I, not smarter than he, I am working hard to launch a new jewellery
collection where I am putting the focus on the spiritual and humanitarian
Values, again! Poor Monique, will she ever think ‘’OF HER CAREER’’!!!

What do you think we can do ''with'' a CAREER? I do not know: it's like
for work: ''I have always had too much to do to have time to work'', and
on top of that I have ALSO ''too many things to think to ask myself about
my FUTUR'' as say the-good-people! M. J.''

----------------------------------------

(Bio., page 1762) (May 25, 1985)

***** (From a letter to Michael.)

‘’... Nature sheltered me when I was young.
In its sounds, its lights, its colours, its movements ...
So much Love and Beauty.
If it gave me a language, tastes and an appearance that the social world called:
artist, for me, all that remained rather love-of-the-Nature rather than professional
expression ...''

In parallel, in Society, did that make of me an…artist?

Monique Jarry''

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PAGE 326

(Bio., page: 1768) (May 29, 1985)

***** (From a letter to Michael.)

‘’...What I wanted to tell you about that, is that
the characters that we meet there gradually
under the name of ''Michael-of-Science'' will be and will remain
a physician.

I had a flash yesterday afternoon,
the good shot that it is as such to make
an artist and a doctor have a dialogue
on art and… the psyche…yes!

What a shame!

An artist who respects himself always has ''a
psychoanalyst-among-his-friends'' i-i-i
‘’But’’ he never says anything about what
he has confided!

Well, it's ''intellectual'', that’s all!

Plans to ruin even more the reputation
of artist by confirming them :''Crazy''
IN ADDITION TO
''rubbish''!''

----------------------------------------

(Bio., page: 1770) (May 29, 1985)

***** (Another excerpt from the letter to Michael.)

''... I am rereading this, this morning: another one that is sure
that I will ''die'', if it Is not already done: if I
do not harness myself to make FRAMES (!), ho! forgive me,
‘’canvasses’’...''''! ! ! !

PAGE 327

When I painted, I was told that it was
‘’neurotic'' to waste so much INTELLIGENCE
(ho ho!) smearing on cardboard’’

When I write, they say to me ''How sad that
so much talent is going to waste! You ought to correct
yourself of your pamphleteer side (dixit) that causes such a loss
for Art!’’

----------------------------------------

(Bio., page: 1831) (June 1, 1985)

***** (From a letter to a friend, Peter.)

‘’... AND I say to myself that ‘’a person of your
type’’, intellectually and spiritually conscious
would be a real useful ASSET for the
cause of global Communication which I made
the Meaning of my life ...''

----------------------------------------

(Bio., page: 1833) (June 1, 1985)

***** (Another excerpt from the letter to a friend, Peter.)

‘’…Because NOW I understand
that biologically and psychologically
my ''work'' SUFFERS because of my
own isolation (for Robert it was the
same): you can face Life, the
World and even society ALONE
with ''success''(many artists do it
and do succeed)
BUT, ''provided'' that ‘’behind the scene’’
You are WELL surrounded
by deep friendships that UNDERSTAND the
reasons of your work,

PAGE 328

14

the MEANING of your work and the importance
to give to it’’.

----------------------------------------

(Bio., page: 1853) (June 5, 1985)

***** (From a letter to Michael.)

‘’Something like: To the SYSTHÉMATIC vision of
the world, I oppose painting, art in
general; and I ''win'' in spite of my concern because
alive and beautiful is Painting. The only
‘’truth’’ for me’’
Basically, I see the expression of a struggle and
of an outcome: Ideology AGAINST ART

8

Art wins.
As for ideology, it loses by default: by
boredom and collapsing on itself, whatever it
dose.’’

----------------------------------------

(Bio., page: 1864) (June 11, 1985)

***** (From personal notes in view of a meeting with Michael.)

‘’...Art is a refuge
where our freedom of thought ‘’can’’ be exercised without
hurting us ‘’too’’ much of course,
but it is because art is ''discrete'' due to
its vagueness, contrary to ideology and
to proselytism.''

----------------------------------------

PAGE 329

(Bio., page: 1866) (11 June 1985)

***** (An other sample from a personal notes in view with a meeting with Michael.)

''... But it is only delaying the confrontation
but of few, a very, very few years
because ...
when already a Barbara ''notes'' one of our session works
at the University of Quebec, it gives an ''A +''
and when in the same week we present
our works and portfolio for us to register
in the next course: we are ‘’unanimously’’ rejected
by juries without the right to know
the ''reasons'', while ''we win top’s''
the bids that we present to the
same ''people'' in their ‘’lucrative’’ private companies '',
etc. ... we are never accepted
in a ''public contest'', but they come and
ask us to accept to ''produce stained glass
sponsored by the government''… but under the ...
''signature'' of ‘’their artists’’ ... we offer them
art objects and they accept, and they refuse
to expose our pictures in their offices even
if ''all'' is offered ''freely ''…maybe
some of them are sincere and have not yet
noticed it ...
but there are others, senior officials

E

who know this and say it openly since a
few months ... and it now has been at least two years
that even at trade shows
where you are paid top dollar in cash, certified checks
in ADVANCE, we are denied the right to sell
our products at the last minute and we are not

PAGE 330

reimbursed our deposits ... it's been at least
four years that we do not sign our products,
only with our crests, that permits us to
assign them to their salesmen ... provided to sell
below the current prices ...
we let them talk to us, examine us
as most as we can, to ‘’psychologize’’ us but that
does not tame them more than before, rather
...
and we are more and more afraid of them ourselves,
so, that doesn't improve anything...
we ''try'' to be interested in their ‘’culture’’
but we are less and less capable
to ''keep up'' with their different successive versions
of their ''history''... all over the territory,
we feel that everyone is in the same
state ... we are not worth much ourselves
and it seems that the same applies for most
other ethnic groups ...
banks chasing us more and more
to offer us non-financed credit: credit margins,
notes on demand, etc ... notaries know
and clearly warn us ’’person to person’’ of
the extent of the conflicts ''within the
decision making personnel of financial institutions''
... many of our own parents beginning
to be decease ... the respect we had for them not
stopping us any more ... the numbers start
to ''appear'' ACCIDENTALLY more and more

F

often ... at least in the golf courses of the
Laurentians ... I have not yet returned, and ALSOW none
of ‘’my friends’’ have returned to the
Rosemere golf club ...? ... ***** (They segregated against Jews.)
Construction is casually ‘’practised’’ by
more and more intellectuals like me.
We are more and more to play

PAGE 331

''low profile'' like me.


And the worst part is that I think it was a
MISTAKE!

We hid our curriculum vitae thinking
that our personal qualities could
be appreciate by some, but
as it did not work ...

Alas! I think that not only did we
not make real friends through our
humility,
but that ''to the contrary'', in the nervousness of
recent years: we have just
committed THE SAME mistake as the last
time ...! ! ! my god! my god! ... fucking dirty
race! It is so stupid ...!
But stupid!
When they discover that we are much
richer in culture, contacts, etc.… that they
had thought ... it will ''insult'' them as
usual!
As usual: ''Wanting to do too much to
please, we will have hurt them in their pride''
and not ‘’yet’’ being able to say it openly, they

G

will hate us and we will be more and more afraid
and they will seek revenge even more...

It is much more urgent not to have
enemies
that having friends.

We must react.

PAGE 332

The how of the why demand too much energy.
Personally, it exhausts me.

Signed: me-who-is-
no-one .

Aliases: the ‘’understanding’’,
Her.''

----------------------------------------

(Bio., page: 1992) (July 25, 1985)

***** (From a letter to Michael.)

‘’...I do not want to live in ''compartments'', on one side
the ''person'' and on other the ''artist''
OR I will restart my inter-professional ''strike''.
Where the ''doctors'' are my enemies and on the other
side ''Those with whom I can talk about Art''
are my ''friends''.
A week later I note in red all this with the intention
of showing ''everything'' to Michael, my ‘’friend of nonsense listen’’

July 30th 85 M. "

... and any other part: Performances.

As for me, I do not see the usefulness
of dividing two pieces of the same language,
but ''at this time'' it is still the
rule among critics, dealers and exhibitors of
Art. A remnant of ‘’dualism’’ I suppose.''

----------------------------------------

(Bio., page: 2008) (July 26, 1985)

***** (From a letter to Michael.)

PAGE 333

''Note: I realize suddenly re-reading these writings of
a few days ago ... memories ... the ''faces'' of all
the ''other'' artists under 50 years old that I
know’’. La Malbaie’’, said C. I. M. E .... I remember ... a ...
then another ... yet another ... etc ... at the ''time'' when I
met them ''more often''... Main characteristic of our

***** (Back page)

meetings ...

1 - I generally become furious when I
remember because they don’t even
talk to me about art anymore
so much our styles in ''appearance''
have distanced: not as much as
that, THEY CONTINUE to follow the
establishment NEEDLESSLY ...
and me ... I continue
NOT to follow it ... equally,
unnecessarily apparently...
Outwardly, this is what it gives:
. I'm always doing the same: my
possible ... and I get nothing.
. them: they don’t stop ‘’restarting a new’’
and RE-end up with nothing.
(in my opinion, we are neither closer nor farther than before.)

2 - they talk to me about anything
except art.

3 - ALWAYS, all in one way or the
another tell me: that I do
not change, that I do not age, or
how do you do to still manage to love
doing something, etc. ...
My INER answer from (1965 to 75)
‘’My word, they are crazy’’

PAGE 334

since (1977)
''What are they doing by getting older and
especially: they are so depressed! ! ! ''
(their faces completely
undone, their intellect completely DESARTICULATED etc. ...
‘’terrible defeat’’ to see, really sad ...
They even tell me (Marie Claire)
That our ‘’chromed’’ A. Vaillancourt
rolls in alcohol too ...

WHAT I WANT TO SAY:

''Maybe the climate is bad for all
the world IN THE LONG RUN,
for others, EXACTLY''''
as for me?
? ? The question is ‘’askable’’
in any case, right?
I must think about it!

M.

***** (Next page)

Why are all the artists in Quebec
so depressed since I
am young?

(Before, I shrugged my shoulders with contempt:
they had no ''personal discipline''.
Yeah.
Me, I had some ... and what did that
prevented, except for the ‘’de-motivation’’ of my
intellectual capacities ''IN CASE I should
need them! ! ! But, it's not with the mind that
one is an artist. It is with the heart and the body
so… I ended up depressed ‘’also’’!)

Maybe, there is no relationship between

PAGE 335

General depression and I, but
perhaps there is ...
I have to verify.''

----------------------------------------

(Bio., page: 2027) (July 27, 1985)

***** (From a letter to Michael.)

‘’...No, I cannot conceive of an ''art' that serves to make known the Past
in a way that divides people in the Present: even more.''

----------------------------------------

(Bio., page: 2036) (July 30, 1985)

***** (From a letter to Michael.)

‘’...I was, what, 20 -21 years old. ‘’All
of the people’’ were competing at their best
''Monique told me last week ...''
Jarry said that''...'', ''My friend Monique ...'', ''Monique
pointed out to me that''... and so on and so
forth and all the tra-la-la of the jet-set in 1968, my
dear, ‘’Huxley accepts the conclusions of
Jarry’’, ‘’whatever, but she still refused to
meet with Dali last spring!’’, ‘’you
know her as well as I, she did not want to have
anything to with Barras, as of Guy Robert’’, you
remember, even in New York last year,
she refused to go to Marcel Barbeau’s and
told her to keep her studio for her ''has-been''
and came back on the same weekend!

7

And yes, I was the ''only'' ''TRUE'' ''Authentic''
psychedelic painter North of the X th parallel!

PAGE 336

I never even tried ''their''
arsenal of psychotropic? Of course they
all knew that: that made me in their eyes even
''more in'' than Timothy Leary! "... the
things one can hear!
Unfortunately for me, I've heard of
Alpert only very recently: someone
who had ''common sense'' ‘’on the
subject’’ and not only ‘’about the subject’’, on the subject!
It would have rested my minds.
Note that in addition to cheese,
dancing rested me also.
As for me, what preoccupied me, is what jealousy
is always contained in flattering
... : my daughter ...Achilles’ heel…
how to exploit it? ...
Ha! Yes, to be the White Wolf, in those
times, I was!
I hope that at least this ''experience''
will serve me usefully for something today!
So;
having ''considered'' of speaking to you
''normally'' today,
all things considered ... I'm going to spend the
evening ''think of something else'' and
Robert and I, we will cook up a good
Raclette with white wine.

Managing my delirium,
Monique Jarry''

----------------------------------------

(Bio., page: 2048) (July 31, 1985)

***** (From a letter to Michael.)

‘’...Question: and if Art was life?

PAGE 337

if Art and life also, so
simply: life ‘’in’’ ‘’real’’ life?

Answer: (very ‘’thrown’’) ... the thoughts of
artists would be politics as
those of the deputies for
the ''moving'' of the environment
(where the stock market is an element like
‘’any’’ other)

families would the ''public''
and the ''society'' of Art

and perhaps that EVEN
the ''countries'' would
then be sitting on the States ...

and our cultural civilizations propped
on our ‘’regimes’’...

etc. ... etc. ...

Ho! what a ‘’down-to-earth’’ artist I'd make
if ‘’fortunately’’ for everyone
I was not depressed enough to feel
personally lost!)
Ha! La-la!

Bye Mon.''

-----------------------------------------

(Bio., page: 2140) (August 15, 1985)

***** (From a letter to her daughter, Cybèle.)

''... And never forget that
countries, for example: there are MANY.
Most countries unfortunately

PAGE 338

rarely pass on television or in newspapers, etc.,
why? Because there are not many countries that
like war, earthquakes, car accidents

3

and other stories about crushed dogs.
Where is the link?
C’mon, Cybèle! It is OBVIOUS:
''in this society, all the mass-medias survive
only by selling PICTURES of conflicts''
And it's the same in all other ‘’mass diffusers’’
of this society ...
Why?
C'mon, Cybèle: because it is this and exclusively
this that people love in this society!
How can we know it so clearly and squarely
as I am affirming it?
C'mon, Cybèle: Look around you. There are
NOT only books that show the problems of
things and people etc.. currently available in
bookstores, but all the books that talk about
true life and not exceptional cases which
come to make a ‘’good pass’’ to get into
trouble,
so all the books that do not invest ENOUGH in
''colour'' and pictures of violence, of troubles
or other disputes: DO NOT SELL, final!
Is that clear enough for your taste: for all publishers, booksellers
etc ... in any case, it is clear enough for Me,
true artist; it is ‘’very exactly’’ there that
each artist, sooner or later, comes to ‘’not being able’’
to wait any more to make his DECISION.
1 – You leave Art and you recycle otherwise: then you
can ‘’Perhaps’’ be accepted in this society.
2 – You ''pretend'' to leave Art (as Denis)
and you try to pass as someone ''poor''. If it works:
then you can perhaps be accepted in this society.
In any case, you'll know it fairly quickly: if

PAGE 339

the answer is ‘’yes we accept you’’ then by mail
in general, you'll receive a ‘’good guy’’ check.

----------------------------------------

(Bio., page: 2189) (August 15, 1985)

***** (Another excerpt from the letter to her daughter, Cybèle.)

‘’...I've caught you IN THE ACT
worse than panties-down,
‘’no’’ panties at all YOU
CAME OUT head
first (that's really you)
in full life,
head first, ''almost'' in one shot,
nearly all ''brought up'' (10 pounds)
bam! in life and hop.
I SAW YOU. I cannot swear that ‘’everyone’’

51

was ''happy'', you know how
people are, eh?
we never know enough, too much
what they think when they
think, or even when they
are daydreaming, etc. ...
but I can speak for
‘’myself’’ in any case: in my
taste, me-your-mother-the-artiste,
''I found that you were very
SHARP''
with your beautiful, beautiful, large, small
small nails,
with this type of beautiful luminous eyes
all in ‘’shading’’, I would say
like ... you know, the most
successful blue and white porcelain

PAGE 340

of the ‘’Ming Dynasty’’
... and then the devil in your body with that,
the spinal column, strong
like a beautiful little
pink shrimp and proud as those of Nantes
or St-Nazaire, or La Rochelle...
the body strong and full of ''this
kind'' of strong character ''in particular''
that is imperative to be able
to dance the ‘’Spanish-thing’’
in space and with stile’’
and above all a kind of golden shade
in the pigment of the skin that
‘’fitted’’ perfectly with the ''moulding''
of the profile of the forehead and of the cheeks
to accentuate a small ''Eastern'' look
on the Tibetan side and the Moorish ...
you see the bag of that
morning of January 17th

52

Continuation of August 15, 1985

that year that was 1967, of course?
Seen in MY POINT-OF-VIEW: it swigged
I was rubbing my hands, I was
proud of myself
(why hide it!
for that matter, I even found
your entry and your appearance
so much IN MY ‘’PERSONAL’’ TASTE
that imagine,
when everybody had finished
‘’bothering’’ me
to ‘’help’’ me and that I
finally had you there lying
and kicking on my chest
slightly to the side of my neck,

PAGE 341

towards my left shoulder,
while I was sitting
on the back, a bit lying down,
while leaning
on my elbows,
well you know what I
said to myself?
''Monique, you'll be a
Great Artist!''
''because that little girl there, O. K. came into the world
this morning ''as'' perhaps
many more children
around the world,
O. K. But THIS ONE here
on your chest: did
not ‘’have’’ to arrive so
beautiful and so harmonious
as that: so look
at her well this little

53

‘’child-there’’ Monique, she is
your own little girl, look at her
a lot. It is a Life that
you have just given birth to:
no sculpture will ever ‘’match’’ that,
nor any painting,
and you there, Monique-the-young-
paintresse, well, it is you that has
succeeded in bringing this
Life to term ALL ALONE,
All ALONE: EXACTLY’’.

----------------------------------------

(Bio., page: 2204) (August 15, 1985)

***** (Another excerpt from the letter to his daughter, Cybèle.)

PAGE 342

''... And I went home to call
Paul Beauchamp, an old painter that I was not
seeing any more at that time and asked him
his opinion on the idea that was trotting in my mind
at that moment:
1 - Can everything ''in its self'' have
a price?

2 – it is not a
complex semantics issue
to summarize in a ''yes''
or a ''no''?

3 – is declaring a
boycott of exhibition-as -
if-of-nothing-had-happened by
a kind of moratorium
on the matter would
not be an act of ''Liberal Art''
in its itself?

4 - Beauchamp found that
seen from the point of view
of the freedom of action
and not only of
thought that is the ‘’PRIVILEGE’’
of Fine
Arts, that my idea was
not ''OUT OF THE
QUESTION''

5 - Thus (because I
went ahead and began a
rupture with
the establishment of the Arts,
- C. E. G. E. P.S and Universities
in mind - that I

PAGE 343

68

did it: as you can
SEE!
Assuming, like everyone
indeed when
they are asked: no, I
do not paint like everybody
ells, or not even
‘’like’’ anyone,
no, I do not
react so much ‘’as’’
everyone, on the
same-subject-in-same -
time-and-all-and-all:
THE SAME, THE SAME, what!

Is it good, is it bad?
I can not tell you yet, it has
not been a ‘’long time’’ enough to
JUDGE really… but, I am beginning
to have glimpses of certain little
things on the ‘’occupational reality’’ of this
society at this moment ...

And I think that the ‘’people’’ in general
are NOT YET ready ''.

----------------------------------------

(Bio., page: 2229) (August 17, 1985)

***** (From a letter to Michael.)

***** (As you have seen in previous excerpts, Monique also had a sense
of humour sometimes caustic, dark, sarcastic, ironic and sometimes hilarious
and always relevant. Here is an excerpt from a letter written in August 1985)

''... Well here it is: ''as simple as Columbus’s the egg: we just had to
think of it.''

PAGE 344

"In Monique-Jarry’s-curriculum-vitae: I
am marketed as an ‘’expert-specialized’’ in

POLYVALENCY! "

In any case for ‘’a time’’, it really helped the ''participants'' in my life and
my work, ceased to be ''afraid'' of a case like mine: who does not knows
how to do anything in particular, but can ''do'' it with Art!
(Formerly, if I remember correctly, they called ''cases'' like mine ERUDITE) (1)
(1) Note in passing: ''I can not remember that in ‘’the old days’’ that ‘’doing in
erudition’’ was BADLY SEEN AS SUCH, but the last ten years: things have changed, no?

Towards 1974 (5), ‘’in fifteen days at most’’, I went from uncultivated sub-proletarian to
an avant-garde polyvalent person.

It is ''haphazardly'' if I ''thought'' of ‘’COMPOSING’’ this document because I did
not even do it for personal pleasure, but because my agent in Paris absolutely wanted
to include some of my etchings and drawings of one of my collections ''in a thematic
exhibition (I think) in Paris, demanded ‘’at least a curriculum given that I could not
personally be there myself'' in Europe with a bandage on my forehead and an eye –
because you know Art, elsewhere, is a bit like ''The Sock market'' and if I had lost
and the head and both legs, it would have been correct and even good (exotic),
while on the contrary, if the rumour ''talked about that'' that peintresse there
WOULD HAVE any visual problems whatsoever: automatically ''everyone''
steers away from that new ''colt'' (eyes, ''seeing'' what: it seems to them directly
related to the fact of ‘’STILL’’ being ‘’ABLE’’ to paint) Here I speak of the
''old days'' of a decade ago, because SINCE then the ''fashion'' in painting is
not to paint and thus to be blind ‘’for real’’ probably must ''help'' in the jet-set ...
don’t you think?

Obviously, between me introducing myself in person in Paris at the C. I. P. A. C.
(the show in question) and sending a curriculum with haste ...
...
• There would have been another solution ...: the ''normal'' one, the ''usual'' one
for artists from all furnished big countries, as of colonies all unfurnished – in general,
a COMPATRIOT of ‘’the artist’’ presents himself at the opening and to the local
media
to
''Certify'' that yes, Canada exists,
Yes, it is in North America

PAGE 345

Yes, this ‘’exhibiting-woman there’’ is one of our nationals.
etc.. etc.. or at least ''a'' journalist or a-desk-receptionist of an
embassy or a whatever consular department, etc. ... you see?

But for us here, it is not the same as ''elsewhere'', nor
Canada know us, nor recognize us, nor the Québec Delegation, nor the
Franco-Quebec Exchanges: NOTHING
No, never, nobody. Not just for me: it is equal for all ''cursed'' artist who
was born ... ‘’let us say’’ inside the Ste-Justine Hospital.

‘’Because’’ the Arts, do not exist here yet: everybody LOVES it of course
and RESPECT us almost as much as a Statue of Mary 20 years ago or
as a White Wolf that nobody sees even when ‘’it’’ passes in front of the door, etc. ...
''You know what I mean''?
To admire, to almost idolize, but: '' DO NOT TOUCH''.''

----------------------------------------

(Bio., page: 2240) (September 18, 1985)

***** (From a letter to Michael.)

‘’... Monique Jarry alias ''whom-ever-you-want''
because the soul belongs to the being that it is but the works of its dimensional
body remain ''property-of-fact'' of the dimension from which they emerge (1)

(1) i.e.: my works, including this ‘’writing’’ among others belong ‘’more’’ to
you than to me (for which they are a tool of existence, thus more a ''residue''
of authentic learning, than a ''source'' of learning''). The corollary to this statement:
''Your words Michael, bring ‘’more’’ to me that ‘’hears’’ that to you who ‘’say’’
them. At least: in the short term and more ‘’easily’’. OK? ? ?
Bye M.’’

----------------------------------------

(Bio., page: 2246) (September 18, 1985)

***** (Another excerpt from the letter to Michael.)

PAGE 346

‘’...Note:
Mc Gregor and co. have
''Busted'' (with Maslow,
Harvard colleagues, G. M.) on ''Motivation''
after the discovery of the
‘’seeker’’
If MEMORY was one of
the factors of motivators?
This would not be a surprise when
one thinks of the STROGHOLD of ART that
all will recognize in this
following expression: ‘’Power of evocation’’. M. J.

12

What is the ‘’role’’ of
memory in
MOTIVATION?
(note: it is there, that I see the danger in
all proselytism) M. J.

. the location, the theft, the destruction
or the putting into disorder of
objects around a person
can in some cases be more
FATAL than in
others. Notably,
for the artist of Objects
(Fine Arts)’’

----------------------------------------

(Bio., page: 2265) (September 18, 1985)

***** (Another excerpt from the letter to Michael.)

‘’... In Art for me, it is like
this: alone - never had the director’s

PAGE 347

stage fright: yes

23

the ‘’geometric’’ form of thought
that is mine
(it's almost as if I could sometimes when I
am thinking (act) be able to visualize
a neuron and its synapses!

(I do not think any more by ''images'' since ...
1973 ... the accident? The case of the
weaving loom a few days before? ? ? ?)

The higher the ‘’multiplicity’’(1)
(1) I include the various responsibilities
of my experience that
accommodate themselves better with diagrams
than with the anecdotal.

24

- I do not like politics,
but man in
search of his being.

- I do not like economy,
but the multi-environmentalism of
''Creation'', its ‘’dimensional’’ aspects
known or not, knowable
and unknowable.’’

----------------------------------------

(Bio., page: 2271) (November 7, 1985)

***** (From a note in a notebook.)

...''. ''... did that make of me an artist?...''

PAGE 348

. No.
. (It) (Art) however made me what
I am.''

----------------------------------------

(Bio., page: 2284) (January 1, 1986)

***** (From a letter to Michael.)

‘’... Here is a copy of the dedication that I wrote on the
inner cover of the book on Vincelette that I sent to
Marie-Jeanne Stanton when returning to her, her book -
on-the-thought-of-Art. Rereading what I
wrote on this topic, nearly five years ago now ... I
would only add a little note at the very last
page, dated the first of the year 1986, ''after
reflection'': ''... please never hesitate to succumb
to the inspirations of Art, NEVER''.’’

----------------------------------------

(Bio., page: 2545) (February 6, 1986)

***** (From a letter to a friend.)

‘’... 1- To make a living
by selling ''Art
objects'': we must do
much more than
opening our studios
to the public.
We would have to
embark on creating a
small INDUSTRIE
with its pomp and
works, distribution, import -
export, raw materials, personnel

PAGE 349

and training, administration and
management, etc. ...
An ''artist'' has nothing
to DO with that
according to me.

2 – it is BAD for
the soul and the spirit of the
creator to produce ''without
soul'' objects-that-have-a-
PREMEDITATED-commercial-
Function.

3 - Metropolises like
Montreal are not
ecologies ''favourable''
to the evolution and the
growth of a
Living Art.''

----------------------------------------

(Bio., page: 2572) (September 1, 1984)

***** (From a letter to Monsignor Valois, bishop of St-Jérôme. Note:
The next excerpts are from a file ''A stained glass offered to Pope John Paul II.''
This file began in 1984 and ends in 1988; hence the normal ‘’chronology’’ of the
extracts have been modified in this case.)

‘’...This pope has made us discover
the relationship between culture and the sacred
at the level of authenticity and the identity
of a person.
These are clarifications that
concern us a lot, we the artists,
in the psychological attitude
through which we apprehend the Universe
and the meaning of Art.
Several synthesis of the Pope have

PAGE 350

helped us to clear the ground of
‘’reality’’.’’

----------------------------------------

(Bio., page: 2582) (October 1988)

***** (From the same file: Extract from the letter that Monique addresses
to the Holy Father.)

''... After my recovery efforts, this intellectual struggle oppressed me.
I felt a great need for ''freedom'', I again had to express myself and to
''testify'' but how, where, of what?
This is where Sacred Art seemed to me like the garden of light where
my heart and my mind could finally work together. But my heart and
my mind fought…however I continue, because my heart knows what it
wants and my excessive experiences in rationalism does not feed me.
For sure I walk with true emotion, but also with firmness.
Sacred Art brings the intelligence of life, unity and the liberating wind
that I have so much searched for.
My approach opposed me to my old community and my family ...
but it gives me back the world and a new spiritual family.’’

Monique Jarry

----------------------------------------

(Bio., page: 2596) (December 17, 1988)

***** (Excerpt from a notebook.)

‘’...There is much to paint for
Whom speaks his own image
And does not let himself be reconstructed
By camouflaging himself in them.

Without merit
I am clear in my joy and
my weaknesses
because I live of your heart

PAGE 351

that is beating instead of mine.’’

----------------------------------------

(Bio., page: 2601) (December 20, 1988)

***** (From the same notebook.)

‘’...I often chose to paint
to disguise my thoughts
because my voice could reveal you,
and my people were angry against you.
I thought that its heart would abate soon
as it happens so often with emotions,
silent lively outbursts, rebellious and short,
because my people often do not know how to explain themselves.’’

----------------------------------------

(Bio., page: 2610) (January 20, 1989)

***** (Excerpt from the same notebook.)

''... January 20, 89
St-Jérôme

Prologue

Our flesh was possessed by covetousness
Instead of flourishing, its experience
imprisoned us.
Michèle Archangel

the artist resumed his journey finally stripped
of idolatry, in quest of an another
work of Beauty.''

----------------------------------------

PAGE 352

(Bio., page: 2613) (August 29, 1989)

***** (From a text.)

‘’...an example of my ''small'' visions:
. almost always in art.
. the women cathedral ***** (canvas no.: 1970-500, ref. album 1.)
. the angels hastening
towards the Eternal-child
***** (See the pictures of the chapel, no. : 1995-005 and on, ref. album 1)
soft lighting of the Father
coated with the Spirit for
my mural of the Incantation.
(St. Jérôme cathedral)
. The face of Diana
Portelance, before I
knew her, during
several days, transfigured
(pink halos, yellow,
light blue, slightly
white, and her eyes
that sparkle ...)
throughout the period
that I needed
something to
paint the faces of my
angels in the mural
pre-quoted. I thought then
that I could paint
indefinitely angel heads
WITHOUT EFFORT,
I even bought
forty small
canvases especially
mounted for this purpose.
But now that the angels of
the mural is done,
I got to know
Diana better and
I completely lost
my competence to-quickly-
paint-angels-by-the-minute

PAGE 353

As-I-breathe.’’.

----------------------------------------

(Bio., page: 2619) (August 23, 1990)

***** (Letter (complete) by Monique to the Diocesan Formation Center.
You'll notice that she does not distance herself from her philosophy of Art
of a lifetime.)

- In response to your letter dated August 23, 1990

To the team,

Quartered Christianity embodied by a woman with a
divided hart that the two halves are expulsing themselves ... I do not really see
how the Christianity would be best symbolized by
a flock of men and women.

***** (Monique refers here to her canvas (no. : 1971-060, ref. album 1.)

Art is a ‘’vision’’ that is expressed by ‘’symbols’’.
I did not expect that you could enter ‘’all’’ the
symbolism of such a work in a few minutes and above all
with some bad pictures. I expect however that in
a period of two years of exposure your understanding of
this vision will start maturing seriously.
If Lise Baronni explained well to you the situation as it stands:
these pictures will have been submitted to you to see if you could
accept that the Church in action be symbolized by a woman
rather than a man and moreover, a woman represented with her natural
attributes i.e. with breast in an interpretation where the garment
takes as little place as possible. So here is the only question that I am
submiting to you by sending you this photo file.
A work of this scope is a matter of a few thousand
dollars, you seemed to ignore it; so I am informing you.
I already spend a lot of hours as a volunteer in
the diocese so that people who respect me do not ask me
to do more.

PAGE 354

Yet here there is something in your letter that cannot remain
unanswered. Quote:''... we want you we present to us a sketch

***** (Next page)

of what it could ...''
a sketch? to who? To a group of painters or
Sacred Art historians? ... to a group of ''customers''! ! !
It is of art that we are speaking of here not advertising
or posters or anything else.
I'll never be a mercenary and I would have loved for you
to know me well enough to know this.
If you desire that an ''underling'' make an ‘’illustration’’
to decorate the hall of the Formation Center
you can find that easily.

Whereas to the themes and objectives of the Center I think
that a good reading of my picture would lead you to find
them easily. We can hardly be standing,
marching, within the secular community more so
than exposes by my vision.

I think what is (opposing?) us here is only a problem of
''knowledge'' of the language of art.

You have a Center with bare and graceless walls; you
have a ''professional-artist-in-your-midst''! Talk to me (you
already do this during the year through your concerns) let
me listen, hear through the heart of my gift: art.
And trust me.
This lack of hospitality, this refusal to trust hurt me deeply.
Would I find more so the benefits of confidence outside of my church,
outside of my group of colleagues and fellow workers? ? ? My expertise
is qualified to advise you on the ‘’clothing’’ of the walls of the Center.
Yet misunderstandings accumulate. I take as an example an exchange
between Lisa and me:

***** (Back page)

PAGE 355

"No Lise, a charcoal is no less dynamic than a colour painting. It is
something else that is all. Just as poetry is something else than a monologue, but not ‘’lees’’
(certainly not less). However where to hang it counts. My charcoal drawing
of the pregnant virgin is poorly located. This education in art that is so cruelly
lacking in our region (the sacred and the neo-sacred above all) I bring it to you with joy,
you just have to simply want it. If the well-intentioned people keep telling
artists what to do or even correct their works (this sacrilege has been seen in
the best communities - e.g. Marguerite Bourgois ''reworked'' since the 18th century
and finally, ''restored'' in its originality recently!), if all this continues in Quebec
then well in Quebec we will continue not to have a Sacred Art of our own ...
only borrowings of styles and themes gleaned here and there. No voice, no Quebecer Word
or to paraphrase Jacques Grand’Maison ''if we do not reach new consensuses:
we will perish.'' Consensus requires boldness and confidence. If
everyone wants to be master in everything then we will only have ‘’micro groups’’. And that
I know that this is not an objective of the Center! In this informed Christianity
we must be revolutionary enough to trust our comrades ‘’in arms’’.
Otherwise we will speak, we will speak for decades and yet nothing will remain.
The Center is not just a place, an institution, it is also a state of mind,
a state of being.
(we can not ''go forward'' by continuously censoring
the choices and the words of artists)

***** (Next page)

Re endorse the Center's objectives, return to my painting with
an artistic look and not political or commercial and...
you will find; yes I think that you've found your
objective. However art ''surprises''. We believed it to be here and it
is there. It is movement and life BECAUSE it is INSPIRATION and not
DEMONSTATION. Remember this above all: illustration, propaganda,
advertising are demonstration.
Art is VISION, symbolic representation and then you will
see that the beautiful journey which I invite you to will
maybe attract you.
I hope that this letter may replace my
presence at a meeting with your team. I am not a

PAGE 356

public woman, I am an artist.

Answer me quickly, I am so impatient to know
if I have made myself understood.

Monique Jarry

----------------------------------------

(Bio., page: 2626) (1992)

***** (‘’Research and Action’’ is a study project and investigation under the direction
of Jacques Grand'Maison. This project sought to determine the ''status'' of
''belief'' in different age groups. Monique worked in the
religious and social profiles of the 20 to 35 years old. Publication Fides, 1992.
This text is the ''personal progress report'' that Monique wrote at the request of
Mgr. J. Grand'Maison. Here is an excerpt from this text, page 2627:)

‘’...This experiment is a milestone in my life as a person
and even an artist; not that it inspires me in itself, but it
invites me to review the role of art and of the artist in a
world-in-motion, without almost any fixed point.

Monique Jarry’’

----------------------------------------

(Bio., page: 2627) (1993)

***** (Here I am making an exception and proposing to you a text which is
not by Monique, but a comment from Mgr. J. Grand'Maison on the artist that
Monique is.)

***** (A few months later, Monique gave her interview and her analysis
to Jacques. I propose to you here to read what he wrote to her.)

Dear Monique

I am moved, deeply
touched… by the interviewee, by your

PAGE 357

detailed analysis, prophetic.

Sometimes, in the last sentences,
I've found you a little harsh, unjust and oppressive,
wishing more empathy for those
who are attempting to renew the pastoral
and the Church. But what raw truths, brutal
in your scalpel, in your sculptors chisel, but ...
with an indescribable tenderness I
sense in you.

Your input is indispensable,
a must!

***** (Signed Jacques)

Alas, the necessity of
a note: 90

----------------------------------------

(Bio., page 2630) (February 1, 1993)

***** (From a letter to a friend.)

‘’...We went along the river
to Mont-Joli, then crossed the Matapédia
then went around Baie-des-Chaleurs to
finally arrived in my archipelago and my island: Lamèque.
I saw my parish, but not the ''first''
painting I ever saw in my life in my
childhood: ''Notre-Dame-des Flots''. My painting,
no one remembers! There is now
another painting of Our-Lady-of-the-
Waves but it date’s from 1960 ... before nobody
remember! Curious!’’

----------------------------------------

PAGE 358

(Bio., page: 2631) (February 1, 1993)

***** (Another excerpt from the letter to a friend.)

‘’...This fall a new activity came
into my life: I teach painting to three groups of
intellectually disabled. These people really
produce! ! ! Hearts of children.
As they say, to be a painter what dose
it takes? A super IQ
‘’or’’ a ‘’great sensitivity’’?
Sensitivity, that they have! Darlings!''

----------------------------------------

(Bio., page: 2633) (February 1, 1993)

***** (Another excerpt from the letter to a friend.)

‘’... Most people detest
politics or have a passion for it. Me, neither one nor the
another. I know it's important, but… it's like ...
if it bored me ... I love the organization, to think a
community project, yes, but to prance and run around!
And then ... I am a woman of God. One does not
necessarily exclude the other, not necessarily, no, but let us say
that it is difficult to reconcile.
To know how to ''talk'' to others, I would like that, yes, but my thing is
God and the Theology of Beauty.’’

----------------------------------------

(Bio., page: 2635) (1993)

***** (I present this file in its entirety: Teaching of Monique on Sacred Art.
I present it in full because it would be very difficult to distinguish between
the religious contribution and the artistic input in the following without losing
coherence.)

PAGE 359

***** (FILE: This file is about the teaching of Monique on Sacred Art.
There are different dates, but I chose to present these texts as a folder
so you can get a better view on how she teaches and also how it is received.)

***** (The following is a transcript of two tapes that were recorded during
an intensive course on Sacred Art that Monique gave to a group of students
of Rouyen-Noranda in February 1993. The course was given during a period
of five days and was not recorded in full: the tapes contain two sessions more
or less. Following the transcription of the course, there will be a transcript of
a notebook that Monique used for her lectures: notes, thoughts, organizing the
courses, etc.. The notebook covers the period 1989 - 90. Then the final text
is a partial transcript of an interview that a student of Monique did with another
of her students for a course assignment that was followed elsewhere (1994).
The subject of this interview is Art and Sacred Art. Extracts from this interview
are those that relate to Monique and her teaching . I place this interview under
the heading ''method of teaching'' and also ‘’Reflections and testimony’’
and is representative of what think all of her students about her and her teaching.


***** (CASSETTES)

***** (Tape no. 1)


... these days, what makes me live, are my friends, it is having many friends.
I get letters from journalists younger than himself (an old friend) that tell me
''I have worked with you sixteen years ago and I had asked you such question
and you gave me such guidance, such information, it helped me a lot in my life.''
I said to him, I do not even remember that. That's to say to you the importance
in life that on any given day to give the best of yourself because you'll say a little
phrase that'll help another to live, it helps him to make his life and you do not
even remember. So welcoming, openness in all simplicity is… and what I loved
is what he said, I did not remember, I do not remember what I said to them and
they remember and they accept it even if it makes them think. It is so important
throughout your life to give the best of yourself, even when someone asks you a
simple little question ... because you do not know what you can give to someone
without knowing it but for the other it can be fundamental.

PAGE 360

... It reminds me of something that I was discussing with Rita a while ago and
which may be applicable to some of you too. The former education that was
received with catechism ''a bit strait '' that said, what is a mystery: one God
in three persons, cannot be understood, you have to believe it. This is not true,
a mystery is not something that you do not understand, it is something that you
do not ever finish understanding. And that, mysteries, there are many more
than in the dogmas of the Church, there are mysteries in life of every day.
Before the poets said all the time in their poems, ''where do I come from
and where I am going,'' we might as well add; what am I, we do not know
that either. Our reality ... there are many people who lose the sense of reality
today, but our reality, we hold it from our relationship to God, that's what gives
us a basis. We are so lucky to have Jesus that incarnated himself, who made
us understand how we can situate ourselves with God and have a personal
relationship. He applies it to himself; called him Abba, and even Abba does
not mean father, it mean Dad, that's very intimate. To be able to speak ...
no matter how you talk, I talk to God, I talk to him any with way, I say to
myself; I am not God it's you, you understand me, it is you who must come
to me, I offer myself but I cannot reach you but you know me, thus you know
better than me what I would want to say. God is more intimate to us than even
we are to ourselves and in all circumstances. There has been so much exaggerated
morals that have closed us in fact. God is Love, he does not want to bother us,
he gives us freedom, he wants a free love. If we did not have freedom and that
we all loved him automatically, it would not be love. So, he wants a free love,
he gives us freedom, because of that there are many problems but also the
possibility of contact, but he is in his corner and he awaits us, he is so very quiet…
you are right in the middle of a sin, you have both feet in it and then you say Lord
and he comes running to you... sometimes it's as if I did not have confidence in
myself, I tell him to convert me, don’t let me forget you, especially do not let
me forget ever in my life.
... Another subject that comes to mind ... have I spoken to you about the relationship
that I see between mystics and artists? Have I spoken to you about corridors? I think
there is a great relationship between the two. Contemplatives devoted their lives to a
quest for the absolute, but there are corridors in this, there are periods of worship,
prayer, of very very strong vision, then at some point there is nothing, it's black, it
can last for ten years and that is what experienced contemplative tell us on how to
live it, we must learn to organize ourselves to last because firstly when you are
enthusiastic to have faith goes well but true faith is when you do not see anything
and you believe anyway, that is faith. The

***** (Next : Image number 1977-054.)