Makeup Artist: Holly Decker Concept & Artist: Monique Martin
Annus Mirabilis: A remarkable or notable year
After the year we have had with all of its ups and downs, I reached out to renowned and international artist Monique Martin to create a combined creative project.
Monique has created the most amazing butterfly art display pieces and we wanted to creatively collaborate to showcase our artistry. The butterflies represent transformation.
“Transformation is the deep time of things when life hangs like a question mark, fragile and always changing. A single moment in time can determine a life, but it can also take years and decades to form a life. Transformation is a process within human existence. This process allows us to live in the continuous present as we know we will not be the same person tomorrow that we were today. The arithmetic of life can be looked at as continuous subtraction or as continuous transformation. When we die, there is a universe inside our head that evolved and changed as we experienced life. When parts of our life run thin like the transparent chrysalis of a butterfly there is room for transformation, change, growth and movement.”
Monique Martin
We created a team of amazing artists to bring this project together. As we are all women who continue to transform we created a female lead production. In addition to Monique and myself; photography: Karyn Kimberly, hairstylist: Kara Kirman, and models: Trinity of Edge Agency, Ella of Stray Management & Jenna of Edge Agency.
Monique explains where the title of her art of the butterflies comes from:
“The term ‘annus mirabilis’ is not extremely common, but it is used by writers and historians to denote any particularly remarkable year. I am using it to mark this past year, 2020, with an exhibition I am creating that is focused on transformation using the butterfly, time and change as images. 2020 has been a year of transformation for everyone. We move differently in our world. We think differently about all situations and we have had to adapt to constantly changing information, protocols and restrictions. Like the butterfly, we are having to transform. The paper butterflies are a symbol of the transformation we have gone through. When COVID ends, we may find that some of the transformations to our way of living will remain and that some of them will make our world a better place.
Annus Mirabilis is the title of a poem written by John Dryden in 1666. It commemorated 1665–1666, the “year of wonders”. The year 1665-66 was one of great tragedy, it included the Battle of Lowestoft, Four Days Battle of June 1666, the victory of the St. James Day battle and then the Great Fire of London from Sept 2-7. The title of the poem may have been used to point out that the events that year could have been worse.”
Monique Martin is a multi-disciplinary based artist in Saskatoon, Canada. Monique has exhibited her artwork in more than 260 significant solo, invited and juried group exhibitions in ten countries. Her works are held in more than forty-four public and private collections in ten different countries. Her work often uses significant symbols or comments on contemporary social issues. Using specific concepts, Monique creates bodies of work rather individual pieces and once she has exhausted a concept she moves on to a new concept. Her works push the boundaries of standard printmaking: enormous scale printmaking, installation based printmaking and working with three dimensions in printmaking.
Some of Monique’s silkscreened paper butterflies will be included in her installation of 1000s of handcrafted paper dandelions, as part of Crafted Vancouver Festival in Metro Vancouver May 1-25 and at the Seymour Art Gallery, in North Vancouver from April 24 – June 5.
xo
