An interview with the Montreal rap artist following the release of his second studio album, Mascara Tears
CJ Flemings is growing into the best version of himself.
Since the release of the Montreal rapper’s successful debut album, Forever Wanted More in 2017, there was mostly silence from the artist across streaming platforms.
“I held back from releasing a lot of music,” said Flemings. “I still want to put all that music out. I just haven’t gotten to that yet, but hopefully in the near future I can share that with everybody. I was really just working on my craft though. I feel like I didn’t miss with this last project, it’s better than the last one.”
This “last project” is said in reference to Mascara Tears, the long-anticipated, most recent body of work from Flemings. The album was released on Nov. 22, the same day that Flemings opened up for New York rapper Lil Tjay at Corona Theatre. Despite the successful turn out, Flemings sad that he’s still in the midst of planning something special for his own show to celebrate the album’s launch.
CJ Flemings released his second album, Mascara Tears, on November 22, 2019. Photo by Laurence B.D.
Mascara Tears encompasses themes of honesty, love, betrayal, and heartbreak, showing Flemings at his most vulnerable. His drive to go the extra mile may have come from his pairing with Juno-award winning producer, Michael Lantz, who motivated him in the studio.
“I love challenges,” said Flemings. “When someone challenges me I’m more so like ‘Oh damn, you care about this right now.’ So I’m trying to get this, let’s get it right.”
Flemings did a lot of the work on his debut album, Forever Wanted More, alone. Though he decided to change things up on his latest project.
“On Forever Wanted More, I was picking a lot of the beats and I recorded a lot of it, mixed a lot of it myself, and mastered a lot of it myself. I just felt like when going into Mascara Tears, I met Lantz and he was very disciplined about the production and all that, so I dived into the best versions of myself and tried to correct a lot of the mistakes I made and trusted the whole procedure.”
The first song on the album, “Curtains,” was the first song that Flemings and Lantz recorded together after scrapping a previous, unreleased song. “Curtains” begins with a friend telling Flemings that he doesn’t see him anymore and that he’s acting differently. Flemings said he put in that snippet to remind others that there will be times in one’s career when you have to be selfish.
“I felt like I was going towards a direction where I really needed to care about myself,” said Flemings. “[I needed] to put myself in a vulnerable spot to show that there are times where you might feel like there are people who are distant from you, and it’s a problem, but if you’re focused on a goal and that’s what you’re working on, sometimes you just gotta overcome these challenges.”
Now that CJ Flemings has finally accomplished one of his goals with the release of Mascara Tears, one can hope to see more of the young rap artist in Montreal’s glowing hip hop spotlight.
Roddy Ricch - Please Excuse Me For Being Antisocial
Roddy Ricch is an honest, creative rapper with the musicality of a singer
Roddy Ricch has steadily been making noise in the hip hop world with his Feed Tha Streets mixtape series, and his talent was officially recognized this year with a Grammy nomination.
The Compton rapper’s debut album, Please Excuse Me For Being Antisocial, has arrived, solidifying the 21-year-old’s position in the genre as an undeniable talent.
In an age where hip hop is divided between conscious rap and shallow, catchy content, Roddy provides for a unique combination of catchy flows and meaningful lyrics, all while maintaining an underlying theme of motivation.
Each track seems to alternate between softer, melodic songs touching on themes like relationships and heartbreak, and more upbeat, heavy-hitting tracks.
Roddy constantly speaks about the tribulations of his “former” life, all while providing motivational reminders to his audience – a refreshing change from the typical rapper’s braggadocious claims of experiences with violence and crime.
Roddy has a little bit for everyone on this album, and it’s another addition to his impressive discography, further cementing the young artist’s status as a rising star.
9/10
Trial Track: “Big Stepper”
Star Bar:
“It was hell in the projects, I survived the storm
Minoe, a 20-year-old R&B singer, started performing in musicals when she was around eight years old, as well as singing national anthems and in honour choirs. She joined her first band at 16. She now sings solo and sometimes plays guitar, opting for more creative, solo-driven artistry.
“I needed a stage name because I didn’t have one for a long time and I had a show coming up, so I was in a rush,” she said. “I went to my roommate and I wanted something to do with the ocean because I’m from Nova Scotia (Halifax), so she said ‘whale’ as a joke. Then, she said ‘minnow,’ and I liked it. I realized I spelled it wrong, but I liked it that way, and it ended up working well.”
Minoe came to Montreal three years ago to continue working on her music and start studying at Concordia University. She is doing a double major in art history and studio art.
Minoe’s latest song “Cellphone” is about an ex-boyfriend who would never put his phone down, but she said it can apply to anyone. She added that her previous song, “Best for You,” is about getting out of an unstable relationship, putting her needs first and doing what’s best for her.
“There are a lot of songs that I really relate to, and I want to be that for somebody else if that’s a possibility. It would be amazing,” Minoe said.
She is now focusing on shows and PR work. Her team consists of her manager Dany, also known by his producer name Fairchylde, and her stylist Julia, owner of Explicit Mess Boutique.
Because Minoe finds inspiration everywhere – from Destiny’s Child to Louis Armstrong – she is not afraid of trying different genres.
The next step in the musician’s career is to start travelling. She said she would like to perform in Toronto.
“I really want to experience as much as I can and perform wherever people will come and see me perform. I’m grateful for any opportunity,” Minoe said, adding that one of her goals is to release either an EP or an album next year.
She also said she’d love to start collaborating with more artists, such as Kaytranada, a Haitian-Canadian DJ and record producer, and to perform in big festivals, like Osheaga and Coachella.
“It’s so important to surround yourself with friends who support you,” Minoe said. “I have that and I’m grateful. They always help me with my music. My best friends Ellis and Mia have been so instrumental and important in me believing in myself and doing what I want to do. I couldn’t ask for more incredible people in my life.”
Minoe emphasized that people shouldn’t give up because of what others say. With absolute certainty, she said: “I don’t believe in luck. If you want to succeed you have to work hard and keep going.”
The Concordian sits down with Toronto R&B artist Anders after his Osheaga performance to talk about his first platinum record, sold-out shows and the powerful team behind him
Anders is nowhere to be found. His team greeted me and sat me down on a park bench in Osheaga’s “Artist World” where we’re supposed to meet for our interview, but the man of the hour isn’t in my line of sight. There’s talk that he’s eyeing down some sunglasses at a nearby pop-up shop, or that he may be refuelling after an exhausting hour of work. After all, performing in front of a crowd of hundreds in the blistering heat of the summer isn’t always easy.
Mere minutes later, Anders joins our table and introduces himself. Whatever he was off doing, he made sure to make himself comfortable after his performance, grabbing a glass of wine and opting out of his “Off-White” Jordan 1s for red Palm Angels sliders that matched his t-shirt. Anders is an extrovert – made most evident by his bubbly personality and genuine desire to want to speak about his craft. At just 24-years old, the Toronto R&B singer has a lot to be proud of.
Anders has most recently achieved his first platinum record as a for his collaborative track with Canadian DJ duo Loud Luxury’s Love No More. He compared the timing of the release of this song to the story of David and Goliath, since it came out following the worldwide success of Loud Luxury’s multi-platinum single, Body – a truly hard song to follow.
“Me and LUCA, who is kind of my right-hand guy, we created the song one late night in a studio called DAIS back in Toronto and it was originally called: I Don’t Want Your Love,” said Anders. “But I linked up with Loud Luxury, who were like ‘Yo, we wanna work, we wanna do some shit.’ At this time they had just put out their hit song, Body, and it hadn’t blown up yet. It was just sort of starting to– I remember at the time it was like two million plays and they wanted to do some shit so I was like, ‘Yo, I got this one I already recorded if you guys want to do something to it.’ I sent them the vocals, and then they bounced me back Love No More saying ‘We’re gonna roll it out, we’re gonna go with it.’”
The success of Love No More wasn’t Anders’ first prominent feature in the music industry. Following the release of the artist’s second EP, Twos, Anders sold out his debut performance at the Phoenix venue in Toronto that holds over 1000 people. This accolade was documented in detail with the release of The Road to Phoenix, a YouTube documentary curated by NST – the team, friends and label that Anders wholeheartedly stands by.
Anders and interviewer Jacob Carey discuss music and Toronto’s influence at Osheaga’s “Artist World” – Photo by Jackson Roy
“Me and my two team members, Derek [Hui] and Will [Nguyen], when we started coming in the scene and making music, we wanted something that was more than just being an artist,” Anders said. “We kind of wanted a brand to go with it as well. So we created NST. In the beginning, we were just selling merch and hats, but eventually, we want to do music, labels, you know. Film, fashion – everything. That’s just a brand we created to kind of rally behind and it’s also something good for, you know, if ever I want to take some time to chill, we still have NST. It’s not like we’d have nothing to do.”
Anders’ relationship with NST is a two-way street, with both sides often consulting one another before making their next moves. Anders’ relationship with music, which dates back to his early childhood when he was forced into piano lessons and band practice, allows him to play a hands-on role in his songs’ productions. While he takes care of the musical aspect of NST, his teammates help boost the brand and market the products.
“In the beginning, me, Derek, Will – we were just independent artists with no connections to labels, wondering, ‘Ok, how do we market? How do we push the music?’” said Anders. “Will and Derek came from a background of producing events, so we said ‘Let’s do what we’re good at. Let’s put events out.’ So we did a little run of going from city to city to do these listening parties, because that’s kinda what we knew. We didn’t know that other shit. I don’t know how to get on a playlist.”
While Anders relied on real-life networking from city to city to build a fan base, the artist is aware of the role that his own city played in his success. Toronto is home to countless of international superstars, namely Drake and The Weeknd– two of Anders’ inspirations and influences. Without these catalysts, Anders thinks that musicians wishing to make it in Toronto would have a harder time doing so.
“It’s tough cause you know, even Drake, if it wasn’t for Drake I wouldn’t make music,” said Anders. “When you have somebody around you to look up to and say ‘Oh, they did it. Why can’t we do it?’ Right? But if you’re in the middle of fucking nowhere, where nobody made it, you kind of have to lead by example… There’s so much inspiration but if there’s nobody around you to see that, you kinda gotta draw from other places and pave that path on your own. It’s definitely a blessing to have an example.”
Similar to his idols, Anders does not want to box himself in as just an R&B artist, or just a rapper, but a multi-faceted artist with a lot to show for. In the short time that he’s been in the scene, Anders is proving just how far a strong network, devoted fan base, and loyal team can take you.
Lin has been teaching at Concordia since she was a graduate student in 2001. Photo by Gabe Chevalier.
Part-time studio arts instructor Jenny Lin on how her practice continues to evolve
“I’ve been working in a really introspective way,” Jenny Lin said of her recent artistic endeavours. The visual artist and part-time Concordia professor has found herself in what seems to be a creative ebb—drawing back from her usual schedule to make room for new projects and pursuits.
One glance at Lin’s resume will reveal how busy she’s been over the past couple of decades, with most of her artistic work taking place during her teaching career at Concordia. “I feel like I can be a better teacher when I’m actually making work,” she said. A 2018 recipient of the Fine Arts Distinguished Teaching Award, Lin is soft spoken yet firmly present.
Lin began teaching at the university during her master’s degree in print media in 2001. She taught a screenprinting course in her third year, but upon graduating, found herself unsure about a career as a teacher. Instead, Lin worked in the studio arts office for a few years before Tony Patricio, the office administrator, convinced her to apply for a teaching position. She got her first teaching job in 2004 and has been an instructor at Concordia ever since.
“It made me a bit more confident and sure that I wanted to do this,” Lin said about landing her first gig. What started as a few occasional classes developed into a steady schedule, and by 2007, Lin had solidified her place at the university.
Lin’s screenprinted zine, avoid taking too personally or literally, 2018. Photo courtesy of the artist.
Lin said her job as a professor influences her creative career, and vice versa. “It’s inspiring to be around people making art and [to] get to talk about what they’re doing, and help guide them through the process,” she said. “The teaching really inspires me to keep making work.” Keeping an open creative channel between work and play is essential for both aspects of her practice to succeed, Lin said. “[I’m] lucky to be able to work in the studio art [department]. Both things feed each other.”
It’s fair to say that she’s found the balance, because Lin’s artistic biography is staggering. Since her time as an undergraduate student at the University of Calgary, Lin has racked up over 150 credits in group and solo exhibitions, video screenings, residencies, artists’ book collections and workshops. But her list of accomplishments isn’t what Lin considers to be most important—it’s the people she’s been able to work with, and certain projects that have her particularly inspired.
Although Lin completed her master’s degree in print media, she also took video courses while studying at Concordia. At the time, Lin was interested in creating art through non-physical means. Though she has shifted gears a little since her graduate work, this is a sentiment the artist continues to investigate. “I feel interested in [the] different ways that people can be reached by an artwork,” she said. “It’s interesting that someone could see something on the web, in their house, or on a random computer, and enter into this world—like a story—that they get immersed in.”
In her recent projects, Lin has been more focused on print media and zine work. These works can be immersive in their own way, she explained. In addition to being a tangible medium that the viewer can interact with, “artists’ books can fit in many spaces,” she said. Opposed to more traditional work that only appears in a gallery, for example, zines and artists’ books facilitate a more intimate relationship between work and viewer, Lin said.
The artist said she feels more distant from the virtual world now than she did while creating video and digital work. “The way that I was presenting it, or the way that people were accessing it felt a little unsatisfying,” she explained. Lin refocused her practice, leading her to build quite an extensive collection of artists’ books, host bookmaking and zinemaking workshops, and participate in zine fairs across the country with her partner Eloisa Aquino, who is also an artist. Lin and Aquino publish some of their collaborative work under the name B&D Press.
The artist’s 2016 poster/zine titled That which separates you and I or here and there. Photo courtesy of the artist.
As for why she’s drawn to bookmaking and published work specifically, Lin said “[zinemaking] is a way to create a space for more marginalized voices, and also to create a different space where it’s about encountering different people.” She has worked with a variety of groups in efforts to showcase art from marginalized groups, such as the Qouleur collective, which focuses on art and activism of people of colour within the LGBTTQ+ community. According to its Twitter page, Qouleur also hosts a “festival celebrating racialized queer/trans* identities and experience.” Lin said she connected with many people, and was inspired by the time she spent working with Qouleur.
In 2015, Lin helped create the Queer Print Club at Concordia. The artist said she “felt there was a need to bring something more collective and more political into the studios, [and] it seemed like the perfect thing to bridge the community, and the art studios, and teaching in this institution.” According to Lin’s website, the club encourages undergraduate students to “[create] projects that explore the collaborative, community-based and democratic aspects of print.”
Although some may see print media and zine work as disposable, Lin believes in its ability to connect with and create space for those not reflected in the mainstream art scene. In mainstream publishing, for example, “there’s way more distance between the artist and the audience,” Lin said. She also finds smaller, physical artworks refreshing in an age of social media and technological inundation. “A physical object touches and impacts a person differently, and stays with them in a way that’s different than looking at something online and scrolling through or clicking through,” she said.
“[Zine work] is a way to create a space for more marginalized voices, and also to create a different space where it’s about encountering different people,” said Lin. Photo by Gabe Chevalier.This is not to say that Lin considers virtual or computer-generated art forms to be inferior to her recent endeavours in print media. The artist referenced Montreal-based publishing company and studio Anteism as a current example of how to bridge the gap between virtual experience and physical work. According to Lin, Anteism experiments with artificial intelligence (AI) and augmented reality (AR) in tandem with publishing. Lin is particularly inspired by the work the studio does with artists’ books. Although she has worked in the fields of AR and print media throughout her creative career, Lin admitted, “I’m not at a point where I know what to do with it myself.”
This artist also cited Zohar Kfir’s Testimony virtual reality (VR) project as insight into how computer-generated content can be used to express reality. Kfir’s project involves testimonies from sexual assault survivors that the viewer is told through VR—they are confronted with looking at the subject while they tell their story, as if they were face to face. “I like the idea that people identify issues with technology,” Lin said. “If there’s a lack of something […], people try to make work that addresses that. There are more and more people that are trying to humanize the experience of VR.”
Lin’s home studio. Photo by Gabe Chevalier.
As of now, Lin has a few projects in the works, and although she admits they’re progressing slowly, she knows which direction they’re headed in. The artist’s recent introspection has highlighted key ideas that she wants to explore further. Lin explained that she wants to create works by “trying to pinpoint emotional responses to different situations, and gathering really random and fragmented thoughts and fragmented images, and pairing them together […] to create something that feels cathartic.”
Lin mentioned that her teaching schedule has reduced, allowing more time for creative pursuits, whatever those may be. She is currently working on a project with Aquino involving the Quebec Gay Archives. According to their website, “the Quebec Gay Archives have a mandate to acquire, conserve and preserve any handwritten, printed, visual or audio material which testify to the history of the LGBTQ+ communities of Quebec.” Lin and Aquino are interested in exploring queer people’s responses to their collections.
Lin has also started an AR book in collaboration with Anteism, however it’s still in its early stages. “I feel like I’ve opened up more time purposefully,” the artist said, and although she has a few projects on the horizon, Lin is still waiting for them to take shape. “It’s just part of the process,” she said with a reassuring nod.
See more of Lin’s work on her website: jenny-lin.ca
More of Lin and Aquino’s collaborative work can be found on their website: banddpress.blogspot.com
Rethinking what it means to set goals for ourselves
From late December to early January, the internet is riddled with memes generally belonging to four categories: empty bank accounts, being drunk from Dec. 24 to Jan. 2, cringey family stories, and, my personal favorite, all the ‘new year, new me’ bullshit. As if overriding our digestive systems with champagne and Jameson somehow flushes out all the toxicity from the previous year, leaving us with a blank-slate liver to tackle the new year with.
Honestly, New Year’s resolutions are pretty dumb. You can search the crap out of it: in January 2013, Forbes reported that only 8 per cent of people achieve their New Year’s resolutions, and in January 2017, Business Insider reported that 80 per cent of resolutions fail by the second week of February. But why? Why is it so difficult to set a goal—a singular goal—and follow through with it?
About a year ago, The New York Times listed tips for making and keeping resolutions. Just a few days ago, The Guardian published an article that touched on similar points: make a personal plan, join a support community, focus on one goal at a time, find what motivates you, externalize your goals, etc. All good advice, sure, but these fluff articles still have a hollow ring to them.
There are so many issues with New Year’s resolutions (not the inherent concept of goal-setting), but mainly it’s the localization of goal-setting to one check-point window in the year and the pressure to make that window. Realistically, we change so much throughout the year, and it’s important to recognize how your goals evolve with you. On top of the pressure to make a New Year’s resolution, there’s also pressure to make your resolution fit into a cutback-box. For most, resolutions consist of goals like: spend less money, go out less, watch less Netflix, start going to [insert physical activity], read that book, eat less junk, pay off debt, etc.
But what if your resolution was stuff you should do more of? Laugh more. Go outside more. Call more friends. Have more dinners at home. Think you’d have an easier time sticking to those resolutions? Melbourne-based queer artist @frances_cannon posted “Frances Cannon’s Big 2019 List” on Jan. 2, and it may surprise you in all the best ways. Cannon lists goals such as: take a breath, let go of someone who hurt you, apply for something that scares you, tell a really good joke, call someone you haven’t called in a while, smell a rose and many more goals, both small and large. It’s time we start rethinking the wide range of what goals can be for each individual, and accepting that self love is both loving ourselves for accomplishing those goals, and loving ourselves for accepting when we simply cannot.
My name is Noah Baret. I’m a first year photography student. My formal work is mostly rooted in portrait—this can be seen in my most recent series. The aim of Honeybee was to depict masculine beauty without the use of traditionally masculine framing.
I was inspired by the recent popularity of discourse on the relation between masculinity and beauty. I aspired to frame the models in a way that embraces both masculinity and beauty, proving that these two qualities can coalesce in a harmonious way. Honeybee celebrates men’s beauty without depicting it as feminine or masculine, but rather simply depicting it as an intrinsically human characteristic.
I also took inspiration from the work of Anthony Goicolea and modern high-fashion editorials. Like Goicolea, I wanted to keep my subjects in neutral colours and uniform-esque outfits. This technique directs the focus to body position and facial expression rather than branding. I framed the boys as models in high-fashion editorials are framed because I believe that the camera work used in high-fashion amplifies models and creates an image that is both intimidating and empowering. These inspirations helped me create striking images with a predominant focus on male beauty.
I am an interdisciplinary artist and studio art major exploring psychology and mental health through a variety of mediums including painting, drawing, writing, performance art and video. Specifically, I am interested in researching vulnerability by investigating its relationship to shame, worthiness, intimacy, childhood and identity. In my early work, I explored painting bright colourful figures. My figures were playful, flat and referenced a child-like style. I didn’t fully understand why I loved this child-like painting until I started my vulnerability research. I was looking at overwhelming emotion and how we express it, and as I came to realize, vulnerability is something that children are the best at. They cry, they tantrum, and they understand the necessity of emotional release. My current work continues to investigate child-like sensibilities while also exploring psychology and mental health through personal healing and therapy via grounding exercises and emotional release techniques as a tool to propel my artistic practice.
My name is Rachelle Alexandra Fleury and I am a multimedia artist from New York, currently based in Montreal. I am heading into my final year at Concordia with a double major in studio arts and art history, as well as a minor in psychology.
Throughout my childhood I trained and performed as a classical ballet dancer, which sparked my interest in performance arts and fashion design. I then took a more formal approach and combined these interests through costume and set design. In recent years, I have developed my paintings, drawings and material practices by exploring the space between craft and fine art. The role of women in domestic environments further inspired my work, and this “reuse” of female experience has influenced my interest in reusing materials and crafting techniques.
Much like the literature, music is open to different experiences
The musician’s individual originality is dead. Talk about artistic intent is largely fruitless. In the era of sampling, tributes and trends, it’s hard to know the intent of the musicians who contributed—directly or indirectly—to the song. What does originality really mean in this era, and how original can music truly be? All artists are influenced by the people who came before them. No artistic work is truly original, and variety is a great thing. Like any artistic medium, you have to understand what came before you to make your own work.
To a certain extent, every artist acknowledes their influences. Radiohead is literally named after the 1986 Talking Heads song “Radio Head,” which they have listed as one of their favourite groups. They even worked with producers of the Pixies, who are one of their biggest influences. “Idioteque,” one of Radiohead’s signature songs and an amazing song to experience live, uses a sample from Paul Lansky’s 1976 song “Mild und Leise.”
Despite the fact that people say Radiohead has an “original sound,” they have clear influences, that might not have stylistic traces in their music, but references their production style and work ethic.
Sampling also complicates artistic intent and the originality of an idea. Take Drake’s collaboration track with Rihanna “Take Care” in 2012. The song samples a 2011 Jamie xx track, “I’ll Take Care of U,” which already has a sample of Gil Scott-Heron song of the same name (2010). That song is a cover of the original version by Bobby Bland. Drake and Rihanna’s song is the fourth version of the same song. Each version carries so much history, and it’s great to see how a song from 1960 transformed into a contemporary pop hit in 2012.
Each artist presumably had their own intent in recording the song, and each version retains the original vision and eventually expands it. With each new iteration of the same song, new ideas are added, and the vibe changes completely.
Drake uses 52 years of history to share a personal and intimate experience on “Take Care” in collaboration with Rihanna, who brought her own style and influences along with her. Drake’s song is tender and personal, whole but cold at the same time, which Jamie xx brought to the Scott-Heron track one year earlier. Drake and Rihanna add their own textures to the song.
Originality doesn’t really matter because “Take Care” is an amazing track. Sampling is not as lazy as some artists say, it’s a way of sharing a sense of musical history. Crafting a song from a sample is an amazingly intricate artform, much like playing the instruments yourself.
Musicians aren’t the only ones who create musical experiences, audiences also create meaning. People experience music in different ways and in different situations. Does the artist’s intention really matter if people interpret music subjectively? I think not. The beauty of music creation and listening is the act of interpretation and experience.
Artistic intention is a muddled field; did Bobby Bland imagine his song being used 52 years later? Like every single artform, music is cultural and historical. Culture is passed on from generation to generation, with each generation making subtle changes, and occasionally monumental shifts happen as a result of different factors. Music is much more than the individual musician’s originality.
Lucy Stamler (right) poses with a friend in an image reminiscent of Thelma and Louise. Photo courtesy of Lucy Stamler.
Concordia photography student Lucy Stamler discusses her artistic inspiration
Concordia photography student Lucy Stamler combines elements of fear, humour and feminine prowess in her series titled Femme Fatale.
Drawing inspiration from the elusive divas of film noir, Stamler bridges the gap between reality and total whimsy. Many of her photographs feature young women dressed in neo-noir attire yielding weapons and other destructive objects.
“I want to explore the connection between femininity and violence, something often overlooked by mainstream media,” said the 20-year-old Toronto native.
Alluring and mysterious, Stamler appears to be something of a femme fatale herself. She is petite, with ivory skin and enormous blue-green eyes. Her face is framed by a roughly chopped fringe of jet-black hair, and her torso and stomach are decorated with black tattoos. Often the subject of her own work, Stamler emulates a delicate combination of fragility and danger.
Despite her bold and gritty appearance, Stamler is sweet, shy and gentle. At social events, she often lingers in the background, observing the scene around her through the lens of her camera. Although the majority of her work is staged, Stamler still enjoys producing candid photography inspired by her day-to-day life.
Stamler is somewhat of a femme fatale herself. Photo courtesy of Lucy Stamler.
“Wherever I go with my camera becomes my studio, whether that be the top of a mountain or my own bedroom,” Stamler said.
Much of Stamler’s work is created using her favourite 35mm camera, and she develops all of her film in Concordia’s darkrooms. When she does choose to stage her photographs, Stamler creates makeshift scenes and extravagant costumes, pulling much of her inspiration from film and television.
“I think mainstream media and pop culture play a huge role in our lives, which is something I very much want to embrace,” she explained.
Stamler gives topics such as femininity and Hollywood a surrealist twist, often with an unnerving and sometimes humorous finish. In one image of the Femme Fatale series, she and a friend pose Thelma-and-Louise-style, complete with a desert background and plastic guns. In another, Stamler poses with a black studded belt clenched between her teeth. A third image shows a model posing in black and white, with a steak knife pressed against her lips.
“I love how, through image-making, I can create alternate worlds that could never exist in the realm of reality,” Stamler said. “Self-representation and perceptions of gender and identity are themes I tend to focus on in my work.”
An avid sketcher and painter since the age of five, Stamler has long expressed a keen interest in art. Her relationship with photography and film began while making short movies with her sister. Later, in high school, Stamler took a black-and-white photography class, and said she truly fell in love with the medium.
“[I] became so enchanted with the camera,” she said. “Pursuing art just felt natural.”
Stamler also draws inspiration from artist Cindy Sherman, known for her conceptual and often politically charged self-portraits.
“After viewing her series,Untitled Film Stills, I came to realize photography is about more than just creating a pretty picture,” Stamler said. “[It’s] a tool to change perceptions of how we view the world.”
The living, breathing femme fatale can be found on Instagram at @helpimbleeding.
Students in a Concordia print processes class were given the opportunity to display the work they produced this term. Photo by Mackenzie Lad.
Australian exchange student exhibits work as part of Concordia printmaking class
During Ali Watson’s first Canadian winter, she featured her artwork in a Montreal gallery. The 21-year-old exchange student from Australia’s Curtin University faced a starkly different reality this semester compared to the year-round heat of her hometown of Morley.
Her series, featured in Atelier Galerie A.Piroir, contextualizes her experience of being in Canada. It is a response to this new environment and the environment she sees outside.
While on exchange, Watson has lived on Concordia’s Loyola campus, where the view outside her window inspired her artwork, a series of four seven-by-seven-inch woodblock prints. “It is a study of a bush outside of my room’s window […] depicting different weather conditions at various times of day,” she said. “I look out my window everyday and see the bush.”
“I mixed my own ink for my series,” she added. “The colours I used reflect what I saw outside, particularly greys, whites and light purples.”
Watson is a printmaker in her last semester of a fine arts degree. “I was chosen in my print processes class to be featured in the annual printmaking exhibition; it focuses on woodblock printing,” she said. Along with other Concordia students, Watson had the opportunity to help set up the opening of the exhibit, which consisted of curating the works and displaying them in the space.
Ali Watson’s piece is made up of four seven-by-seven-inch woodblock prints. Photo by Mackenzie Lad.
“I really didn’t think much about it before I did it,” Watson said with a laugh, reflecting on the inspiration for her project. She described her untitled series as being “about winter and the visibility that winter has on nature. I tried to focus on snow and how it changes the outside landscape.”
A theme throughout her work is the connection she feels with places even when she is not there. “It is kind of like a tactile memory that forms. I focus on structural surroundings that create a sense of memory and familiarity—the constant things that are always there,” Watson said.
Places that evoke nostalgic memories subconsciously create the meaning behind her work. “My work is always about what’s around me. In Montreal, everything I have made has been about being here.”
According to their website, the Atelier Galerie A.Piroir specializes in the creation and exhibition of printmaking. Although she was familiar with the printing process, Watson had never used woodblock prior to this experience, and the carving element was new to her. “I haven’t worked with imagery in a while, because I usually focus on installations. To actually have to design something was challenging.”
Woodblock printing is a detailed and timely process. Once the artist has carved the wood with chiseling tools, it is inked with a roller and run through a press. Every print goes through the press at least three times and holds multiple layers of ink. Printmakers carve out different sections and print on top of them to achieve intricate designs.
“My work portrays home, but not in the traditional sense,” Watson said, referring to the typical use of people to symbolize home. Instead, the colours and textures she chose reflect this theme, and she relied on icons to “reflect a sense of home and belonging.”
“I think home is a feeling that is created,” she added.
When Watson started printmaking three years ago, she did not like it. “I came to realize that it let me produce the most exciting outcomes,” she said. Since learning the process in Australia, printmaking has been Watson’s focus for the past three years.
“I was a boring painter,” she said with a sigh. “I do like sculpture though, and some of my prints become sculptural, as in they aren’t just flat on a wall. The paper itself becomes a sculpture.”
Watson said she hopes to work as a practicing artist and business owner in the future. “I want to eventually do a master’s degree in something that isn’t necessarily art. I would like to maybe do social work and then find a way to link the two,” she said.
The exhibition, which features the work of Concordia printmaking students, is on display at Atelier Galerie A.Piroir until April 7. The gallery is open from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m., Tuesday to Friday.
