Cathy Jolicoeur

ARTISTIC APPROACH

Cathy Jolicoeur draws her inspiration from her diverse experiences, which she then integrates into her journey, her creative process, within her projects and encounters. She aims to demonstrate that culture is a powerful vector for change that actively contributes to personal growth, based on the premise that art fosters openness to the world and to oneself. Art is the language of the senses. It is a key vector in the learning of emotions. This passion, this love for the search for unusual mediums, brings her to the heart of the creative process. To get involved in the action. To feel, to perceive the material. To go beyond. The "pure" creative act does not imply any premeditation; it is rather a kind of instinct, a sudden vital obligation that drives her to paint with her tools. Brushes, straws, needles.

In short, a multitude of eclectic tools are essential for her to bring forth paintings rich in colors and textures. While painting, artist Cathy Jolicoeur undeniably feels richer, stronger too, because she possesses that extra something that allows her to reject all the miasmas of daily life, to reject them by magnifying them through artistic creation. Absence of premeditation, vital need, intrinsic and visceral energy, conscious or unconscious will to mark her time, to transmit: this is how I feel, how I understand artistic creation.

Artist Cathy Jolicoeur explores entomological fauna with finesse, contrasting it through her practice with embossed metal work. This apparent duality between the infinitely small and her preferred material is navigated by the artist as she creates articulated invertebrate animals that echo, to the point of confusion, the naturalized specimens of 18th and 19th-century herbariums. The modernity of the treatment and the use of metal give the artist's works a recontextualized reading of the world of insects. Her neutral colorations give the representatives of the pterygotes the impression that her insects have been cast in liquid metal, when in fact they have not.

By emphasizing their size, she highlights often unloved representatives of the animal kingdom and encourages the viewer to tame them in a contemporary artistic context. In her approach, the artist favors hand-embossed aluminum plates, patinated like in the past, which offer strong contrasts. Her amalgams of raw materials and sculpted textures reveal flowing forms in studied blends. She is also a visual arts teacher and mediator.

BIOGRAPHY

Multidisciplinary artist born in Montreal, Cathy Jolicoeur holds a bachelor's degree in visual arts and a graduate certificate in school administration from the Université du Québec à Montréal. For over 20 years, she has been leading a rich and diverse career as a practitioner of the arts, a designer of cultural mediation projects, and an experienced visual arts educator for various audiences and cultural organizational entities within the Quebec school system. She also provides tailored training and conferences to promote her various passions and the results of her field research. She encourages their integration into her professional artistic practice with the aim of positively influencing the actors in this field, who, like her, are concerned with contributing to the development of culture here and elsewhere. For nearly 25 years, she has emphasized the importance of artistic education in the development of children and young adults, providing keys to essential knowledge. This artist-educator, a specialist in visual arts, teaches in an underprivileged environment, and her teaching contributes to enhancing the growth and self-esteem of these young people. These workshop courses, very close to the organic approach, become a true outlet. Some of these young people temporarily set aside, in a corner of their souls, their discomfort experienced in their family environment to surround themselves with a sense of well-being during the ultimate act of creation. Certainly, the act of creating is not always easy, but slowly and surely, her interventions allow the student to approach their difficulties differently and develop a sense of efficacy while cultivating their own personal culture. She sees her teaching approach as a factor of academic and social success throughout life.

This dimension fosters retrospection, reflection, and the establishment of creative thinking, a source of balance and greater self-confidence. Art is synonymous with change. It provokes the imagination, awakens sensitivity, stimulates critical thinking, and develops judgment.
Coming from a background with a low education rate and extreme disadvantage where mental illness was present, she boldly asserts that her interest and curiosity in art and science literally saved her. 'This is also what I pass on to my youth: the passion for creating.' Cathy Jolicoeur, 2020 Over the years, the artist-educator has overseen several large-scale events that have won prestigious awards and honors. At the same time, she proactively manages her artistic career by exhibiting in public spaces and galleries. She has also worked on the development and design of stylish accessories and clothing for Cirque du Soleil.