The Happy Beaver, the Jolly Lovers and a Barrel of Powder

Mathieu Laca, Ride, 2009

How I would like to show you one of Mathieu’s (Laca) latest paintings. To be exact, he finished it a couple of months ago; long before it was really finished, I fell in love with it and decided to frame it. For me, it was such a precious piece that I took more than five months to build the frame. But, sadly, I can’t show it right now on the blog because it is part of the next show, I Killed the Group of Seven. Sometimes, it’s really cruel to have to play by the rules; rules are rules, and I intend to respect every one of them; but nobody said I couldn’t talk about it so, here it is!

First, I must say that I was never a great fan of Canadian History. Even if I know that those things are important, I always thought that the past was boring. “We must learn History if we don’t want to make the same mistakes again and again”. Crap! We constantly make the same mistakes anyway. “We must know where we come from to know where we’re going to”. Crap! Look at politics, look at the economy, look at the environment, look at the way Religions are behaving, look at hate growing like weed everywhere; I’ll tell you where we’re heading: head first in a brick wall! I don’t need to read any big book to know that! And, let’s be honest: the way History is taught is not always credible: read a chapter of Canadian History in a French book and read the same chapter in an English book and you feel like you’re reading two different collections of lies.

When I first saw Mathieu’s painting called Ottawa, I understood so many things. In that single painting you can see our past, all of King Harper’s reign, and where all this mess is taking us. You almost can feel the huge blast that will probably put an end to all the stupidities we can see daily in the newscast. The wick can’t burn forever! The scene is tragic, it’s funny, it’s sad, it’s gross, it’s inevitable, it’s unbelievable, it’s obscene, it’s the cruel reality and, most of all, it’s totally stupid, just like politics, past, present and future, just like our PM licking Queen Elizabeth’s ass hoping she’ll hit him with her magic wand to make him look more and more like the gruesome sticky stinking frog he is in reality. All that in a single painting!

Sometimes I worry. What’s going on inside Mathieu’s head? I live with him; we spend all our time together; we work together, we eat together, we relax together, we sleep together. I should know what’s going on inside his head! But, frankly, I don’t have a single clue. Sometimes, he reminds me of Hieronymus Bosch: those guys with flutes up their ass, these couples making love inside huge glass bubbles, those figures with human bodies and bird heads eating people, those self propelled knives cutting ears and balls… Isn’t it just like the real world? When you see those politicians on TV trying to convince people that Art and Culture is not important and even dangerous, don’t they remind you of that guy with a flute up his ass?

That’s what I love about great artists: we can’t imagine what’s going on inside their head. I don’t believe I would be able to live my everyday life without those visions they so generously give us.

At the same time, it makes me sad to realize that being an artist must be a terrible solitude. I always do my best to share Mathieu’s world but I know it’s useless. Great artists are modern hermits: they live in a world we can’t understand but they generously give us ways of living in ours without becoming too crazy.

You must see this painting: it’s Ottawa as you never saw it!

Comeau