Véronique hands me a watercolor. I recognize the camp on Notre Dame Street. “This is a beautiful thing. Because I know people who have been in these camps, I know that there is a lot of mutual help there. Actually there is everything. »
Published at 4:30 p.m.
My gaze moves from the paintings that Véronique Cyr shows me to her eyes, which shimmer and sparkle with the same admiration. His creations reflect a banal Montreal but full of humanity. Its convenience stores with faded posters and the promise of cold beer, its porn cinema, its daycare cars parked parallel to it, its camps for people affected by homelessness.
“I like to paint what the world doesn’t really care about,” says Véronique Cyr. I have a bunch of dumpsters…”
She laughs and tells me that she was inspired by Monet, who painted a single landscape in different lights. In the organization's courtyard there is a dumpster on the street and it is more the graffiti that changes its appearance. Véronique decided to reproduce some variations of the same waste, provided she sees it every day.
After studying fine arts and working as a researcher and carpenter, she found her way into the public sector.
PHOTO ROBERT SKINNER, THE PRESS
Veronique Cyr
“I had big tasks, but I was no longer able to do them. I had cancer and after working as a housewife for two years, I appealed to everyone on Facebook. A friend asked me if I wanted to replace the reception at Dans la rue for two weeks… I've been there for seven years. It fits the chaos in my head, I feel comfortable there. »
Véronique Cyr now works in youth roaming. As a project manager, she helps people find and, above all, keep living space. A process that we collectively pay little attention to, just like what she paints. From the abandoned roadside to the abandoned pickup truck in a yard.
“There is so much beauty, freshness and humility in this type of landscape. I like you very much. »
PHOTO ROBERT SKINNER, THE PRESS
Facade of a supermarket in Montreal
PHOTO ROBERT SKINNER, THE PRESS
In front of a daycare center
PHOTO ROBERT SKINNER, THE PRESS
Color in the city, the little pink house up in an old factory
PHOTO ROBERT SKINNER, THE PRESS
Montreal clotheslines
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Her allusion is all the more astonishing because it is based on watercolor, a medium we associate more with soft decorations and pretty flowers than with precarious living environments.
Véronique Cyr modestly compares her approach to that of Robert Morin. In Yes, Sir! Madam, the filmmaker is filming nylon stockings moving in the wind. Nylon stockings are ugly and smelly. However, they are great in this scene. “Ugliness, when you add tenderness and the look of art, you have something that can stimulate interesting areas in other people’s brains,” she concludes.
It can also help cope with the heaviness of everyday life.
“The work I do is still emotionally difficult,” continues Véronique Cyr. There are easy situations, but also more difficult ones. Sometimes I have to take paint and arrange it to create some kind of balance there. Place things on paper that will hold the material. »
Véronique Cyr sees beauty where we wouldn't expect it, but she is not immune to suffering. It unites the different faces of the metropolis.
“Are you painting these realities to help us see them better? »
– NO. I reproduce them with the aim of collecting the impressions I have. »
An approach like a love letter to Montreal. Véronique Cyr originally comes from Gaspésie and has lived in the metropolis for 30 years.
PHOTO ROBERT SKINNER, THE PRESS
Cinema Love, by Véronique Cyr
“If you come from a region, Montreal is a bit legendary! I wanted the city and was never disappointed. There is always something to see. My work is not pretentious, it could appear in children's books if it were not Cinema L'Amour… The idea is not to let boredom arise! »
I tell him that it would be a good column title: “The idea is to avoid boredom!” » That's exactly why I love the metropolis. It hides an incredible number of people who transform it, support it, unite it in all its banality, make it strange and rich. How can you get bored there?
Every day I walk through the city with the sole intention of seeing her. I observe the houses, the yards, the passers-by, the posters, the cats, the alleys. I feel that Véronique Cyr's work illustrates my daily encounters. He encourages everyone to distance themselves from themselves.
She nods enthusiastically: “Get out of your head! Take your eyes where they never go. Crazy! It's not always fun to be in your head… If I allow myself to get out there and look outside, it's a massage for the brain. This means I can solve problems after the fact. Do you want to be productive in life? Go outside! »
Does Montreal hold any secrets for those who watch it so closely?
“I've been with the same guy for 23 years and he still surprises me! If an individual can always surprise me, it's official that an entire city can do it. »
And Véronique Cyr's eyes shine even brighter.
And deep down I tell myself that it's not surprising that they know how to see in the dark.
Véronique Cyr's watercolors currently adorn the walls of Casa Obscura, a self-managed multidisciplinary artist studio at 4381 Avenue Papineau in Montreal.