| |
|
|
Artist
|
|
I was born in Montréal on August 9, 1976, but I grew up in Sherbrooke, Québec, where my mother and I moved when I was one year old. Our family was a small one: just me and my mother. Our Sunday morning ritual was not held in any church. Starting early on Sunday mornings, we would cuddle up in front of our black and white television and watch all the kiddy shows while eating croissants topped with butter and honey. In the single-mother ghetto where we lived, the children were the law. We were worlds apart from the bungalow neighbourhoods. Our universe stopped at the end of High Street, a mini street close to downtown, that had a corner convenience store where the display of candies was every child’s dream. In rocky wooded area behind our four-apartment block, the lilacs grew wild and creepy-crawly hairy caterpillars wiggled inside their cocoons. They were to me so ugly that just seeing them made me itch all over, yet I was fascinated by them and would spend the longest time observing them.
I was also very intrigued by the prisoners in the municipal jail on the east side of our little woods. When we played near the high stone walls topped with barbed wire, the men behind the bars would call out to us and gesture with their hands. They told us funny stories and we were amused by them. Yet,I was never afraid of the prisoners, even those who escaped every so often. My teachers were much scarier. I think they didn’t like me because I preferred honeyed croissants to the prayers they wanted me to recite and that I didn’t understand. I think they didn’t appreciate either that my hair was short and that I wore camisoles over my blouses. They preferred the compound-named girls with brushed and ribonned long hair who knew how to count to 30. My name was just Adèle, I lived in a four-room apartment on High Street and I would rather, then as now, paint than count.
I would like to thank my mother, Nicole, who always encouraged me to be just me; Crocodile Roux, my communications agent and Josianne, my website manager for helping me to promote this me; and also Jean-François, who is allowing me to stay me. I would also like to thank my family and friends for their unwavering support.
|
|
|