carving – The Concordian

The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts displays 30 remarkable artworks from Albert Dumouchel, representing the evolution of his art style throughout his career

“Printing remains a simple, Austere Language– As I have often said, it’s like chamber music” – Albert Dumouchel.

Albert Dumouchel (1916-71) was a Montreal printmaking artist. He met London artist James Lowe in 1940, which inspired the start of his printmaking career.

An exhibition in honour of the late artist is located on the second floor of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, surrounded by white walls. The room is lit in a warm tone, dimmer than the lobby but matches the tone of the artist’s featured works. This exhibition displays 30 of his prints from the 1940s to the 1960s. His printmaking has been influenced by the development of art in many other countries.

In 1942, Dumouchel’s artwork “Pietà” marked the beginning of his journey. Unlike the traditional drypoint technique, in which an image is drawn on the plate with a sharp needle-like tool. Dumouchel decided to carve his images into a sheet of transparent plastic. “Pietà” demonstrated a picture of the Virgin Mary mourning the death of her son.

Although the overall lines of this piece are rough, the painted appearance on Mary’s face expresses strong emotions. The sharp white shapes in the background form a strong contrast with the surrounding dark round shapes, enhancing the viewer’s visual senses. His spiritual expression laid the groundwork for the later transformation of his artistic style.

In the late 1940s, Dumouchel turned towards surrealism, expressing external reality through his own psychological and poetic imagination. In “The Banners in the Night,” 1958, he used etching to show the technical improvement. Each line in the work flows naturally, twisting together to create the changeable forms of the wind.

In 1965, with the ascent of the Pop Art movement in North America, Dumouchel returned to figurative form in 1965. One remarkable technique he used was lithography. This technique was used in his piece “La mort de la cycliste” (The Death of the Cyclist), presenting his art in a completely new way.

Dumouchel returned to carving, making woodcuts late in his career, like his piece called “L’Horrible chat des neiges” (The Horrible Snow Cat).The penetrating gaze of the cat is what makes the work memorable. Referring to his earlier works, he has a talent of using minimal backgrounds to enhance the expression of the main subject’s manner.

Throughout this artist’s experience in printmaking, much of his inspiration has come from other cultures. “When I think of this artist, or any other artist, I would just think of his expression of art,” says one of the visitors. “Anything could be the inspiration, like what you learned and what you experienced.”

NDG jack of all trades wants to create unique public spaces

“I guess I’m technically a jack of all trades,” said Ralph Olynyk, a local Notre-Dame-de-Grâce (NDG) artist, as well as former theatre design and film animation student at Concordia. “Artistically, I dabble in everything,” he said.

I first met Olynyk one morning in August, doodling at the coffee bar in Le Maison Coop Verte on Sherbrooke St. W. We got to talking about artistic expression and muses, then about half an hour later, found ourselves tag-team drawing fusilli pasta on the outside of a bucket. All the while, Olynyk was telling me about one of his latest art projects: carving the faces of dogs into a tree stump in Girouard Park’s off-leash dog zone.

A week ago, I met Olynyk in the off-leash area, next to the stump, to chat more about his project. “Meet my newest customer,” he said, scratching behind the ears of a lovely poodle mix named Annie. Olynyk is looking to immortalize the faces of dogs like Annie who live in NDG on this stump that is approximately 4.9 m in diameter and 2.7 m tall. Why? Simply because he wants to. “I don’t care [to be paid],” he said. “This is not something where I’m in it for the money.”

The stump Olynyk wants to carve is approximately 4.9 m in diameter and 2.7 m tall. Photo by Alex Hutchins.

Olynyk explained that he’s been interested in the idea of carving trees for a while. But in regards to carving stumps found in the city’s public spaces, his inspiration came after the microburst thunderstorm that decimated Girouard Park last August. The brief storm left multiple fallen trees throughout the park, “and now, I’m just noticing stumps everywhere,” Olynyk said with a smile.

However, bringing this project from concept into practice is proving to be more difficult than he initially anticipated, for multiple reasons. “It’s been a very eye-opening experience,” Olynyk said. “Like, how does a citizen actually do things?” He spoke about the struggle of trying to navigate the slew of legal permits and legislative restrictions that stand between him and simply enhancing a public area.

Thankfully, Olynyk is in the process of trying to arrange getting the necessary permits with help from affiliates on the board of NDG Arts Week. “The idea would be me fitting under the umbrella of [NDG] Arts Week,” he said. Olynyk also explained that, because he was already planning to begin carving the stump in the spring, “[his] goal would be to have it unveiled in its finality during [that] week.”

On top of navigating legal parameters, the logistical side of carving the dogs’ faces into this particular stump isn’t as simple as it may seem. Olynyk described a rather complicated process that involved pulling off the bark and scanning the stump, creating multiple 3D designs on his computer, followed by some trial and error experiments with 3D printing. All of this is merely preparation for the actual carving of the dog faces come springtime, which will pose its own set of challenges.

“My idea [is] to have it like a spiral,” he said. Olynyk has multiple carving plans that he hopes to create silicone castings of which, he explained, will be used for referencing the dog’s faces when shaping the stump. Last winter, Olynyk made a Facebook group that now has 22 members who have submitted photos of their dogs to be included in the project. But realistically, Olynyk has to wait until he can actually start carving to see what the grain of the stump will allow him to do. “I may follow [the grain] and go, ‘oh there’s a chihuahua here, and there’s a pug here,’” he explained.

Last winter, Olynyk made a Facebook group that now has 22 members who have submitted photos of their dogs to be included in the project. Photo by Alex Hutchins.

The unique idea of carving familiar dog faces has begun to spread from one canine owner to another in NDG. “I was looking for a chisel at the Réno-Dépôt in [NDG], and it was hilarious because I was talking to the worker, and he [was showing] me all the different kinds of chisels,” said Olynyk. “And I started to explain what I needed it for—and it’s carving this tree stump. And [the worker] goes, ‘so you’re the guy!’”

Olynyk said that when he receives comments like that, it does two things for him: it calms him—sort of reassures him that he’s on the right track—and it motivates him. “It gives me that extra, ‘being stoked’ feeling,” he said. Even though Olynyk is still navigating how to get the right permits and figuring out what safety precautions are necessary, he remains optimistic. “Yes, this is a big project,” said Olynyk. “But for some reason, I feel comfortably committed to it.”

Feature image by Alex Hutchins