Tribute to Borduas

	Since my childhood, I carve wood. My liking for that material brought me to l'École du Meuble de Montréal, where Borduas was teaching draughtsmanship. His influence had a major impact on my vision and artistic evolution.
	With a few friends, we used to go to St-Hilaire, on Saturdays, to show our drawings to the Master. The madonnas I was reproducing from various models were not well received. I understood pretty fast!
	Borduas was saying, during drawing lessons from models, never to erase a bad stroke. When applied to sculpture, that principle compels me to creativity and make possible an impossible situation: bring life in a glass of champagne!
	When I am carving, Borduas is looking over my shoulder, he talks to me, stimulates me. His omnipresent voice magnifies the joy of creation and opens up the road to fantasy: plumage minuscule, "Coq-immature". And so on.
	I had a good time choosing names for the roosters in the collection. A spreading tale with sensuality calls for a suggestive name as "Coq-en-chaleur-cherche-un-harem." Borduas agreed smiling.
	In the heat of action, a few feathers were blown away. Start all over the sculpture? , no dice! To please the Master you had to keep going and recover the lost harmony. "Coq-en-crisse-achale-le-pas" underlines that difficulty as well as "Coq-atout-revient-de-guerre".
	I heard Borduas when I bungled the cockscomb of a character. He whispered "well done", I raise my hat! I understood I had to sculpt a hat to top "Coq-itinérant-à-la-redingote" and another, for the wedding of "Coq-au-chapeau." Thanks Paul-Émile!
	My templates are made of styrofoam, the pink rigid thermal insulator, from which a mold is made for the casting of bronze. I like that basic material which can be carved rapidly and allows clean cuts and infinite textures. Flowing feathers, a gigantic foot suggest competition, the frantic race of Forrest Gump.
	Generally speaking, the names emerge from emotion and the shapes and relationship with the characters. Therefore specific characters like "Coq-travesti fait-la-belle".
	My approach "go where I push you" brings unexpected discoveries and opens the door to various conditions, at least droll, with the agreement of my Mentor. Even sometimes, the discovery brings forth a classical. I imagined "Coq-transgémique" as a mutation: a body on one side, a tail on the other one. I was quite astonished with the result!
	Love is so strong that it transforms the individuals it strikes. Here "Coq-transgénique" is changed into flowers upon his wedding with "Coq-travesti". It is the summit of self-sacrifice.
	Thank you Paul-Émile for the freedom and pleasure of creation that you gave us.

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