Trip to India

December 2006
To celebrate 10 years of professional artist work, I flew to Delhi, India!
I participated into a one month residency at Sanskriti cultural center, 10 km south of Delhi.

Have a look at my Photos album !

Few times a week, I took the local bus to the city, exploring the contrasts of religious art popping everywhere between dust, pollution, poverty. The experience was by far, over my expectations!

I also found a fantastic Canadian artist living in Delhi who generously offered to come on a one week trip to Orcha for new year eve.

Workshops with kids in Delhi, India

SHADOW PUPPETS WORKSHOPS WITH INDIAN CHILDREN FROM SHELTERS IN DELHI
During my Artist residency at Sanskriti Cultural center in Delhi, I had the opportunity to offer some shadow puppets workshops to different groups of young children from shelters.

Some of these children had never handled scissors before, but their determination allowed them to create amazing silhouettes out of cardboard found in the trash! Creativity is definitely without borders...

I though I was there to offer but it is me who received the most. The emotions I had playing silently (I could not talk the language) are indescribables. It reinforce my dream of working with needed communities.

Solo Exhibit at Lac Lemay's Casino, Gatineau

Album photos

To come in march 2008:
Solo Exhibit, Promenade du Roi, Casino du Lac Lemay, Gatineau, Québec

This exhibit will be the result of an artistic research around light and shadows.
Using my extensive background in shadow theater, I explored the amalgam of different textures, using plastic trans lucid sheets of mylar, which I painted with layers of transparent oil paint. Behind this where suspended other layers of paper cuts. The installation was then lighted with several halogen lamps in order to duplicates shadows projection.

Those precarious installations could not be directly show in the art Gallery due to space issues. I decided then to photograph the result of multiple projections on screen. The mystery of the photographic images will invite the public to ask some "how to" questions, to which I will try to answer with documentation on site.

Through those images, I have explored the women intimacy regarding emotions of sadness, angriness, pain and solitude. States of mind often referred to as taboo.

A poetic contrast between blackness and joy, laugh and drama. Colors represented as a shadow's figure of speech.

Group Exhibit conteARTrebours

2007 Group exhibit, contesArtrebours, Galerie Montcalm, Gatineau, Quebec, Canada.


To answer the public wish to see behind my images, I presented a Shadow theater installation that shows both sides of the screen. The silhouettes are cut in cardboad and paper, suspended in several layers. The lamps duplicates the projections of shadows, giving a deepness on the screen. The public was invited to move the frame to see the shadows dancing!

I was asked to represent a piece of work influenced by a story tale. I chose the story of Vassilissa, a Russian tale in which we meet the witch Babayaga.

Children Books Illustation

Here's a few pictures of the research process I used to create the illustrations of Cheryl in the Clouds.


With a degree in set design from the National Theatre School of Canada (1997), today I’d like to share with you my passion for creating shadow-theatre stories and silhouettes. Within the past five years, I’ve held over 350 activity days for 20,000 primary-school students in Quebec and Ontario.

In the spring of 2004, the Head of Children's Literature at Library and Archives Canada contacted me and asked me to illustrate and stage (in shadow theatre) a story written by Japanese princess Takamado. The show was presented to her during her visit to Canada in June of the same year. It was after this experience that I flirted with the idea of illustrating my stories with shadow silhouettes and creating a series of children’s books, with the emphasis own on Canadian wildlife.







My characters come to life as actors in the shadow theatre only after carton and paper silhouettes have been projected on a large canvas. The resulting images are photographed and form illustrations evoking a living visual poetry on such themes as shadows, colour and light.

The original version of the story was created in 2003 for young narrators and puppeteers to recite during my activities. The layout, the typography as well as the script adaptation are presented as examples. They were all made possible thanks to the Sid Lee Collective’s creative scholarship.






http://www.sidleecollective.com/publishing/index.html

CREATING SHADOW PUPPETS

To see more student's puppets


Theatre workshops Creating shadow puppets Marie-France uses her extensive background in costume and set design to introduce the wonders of shadow puppetry. Though drawing and cutting, the artist shares her passion for making shadow puppets and the creation of fantasy tales inspired by the students’ ideas. During the second hour of the workshop the students will create their own shadow puppets.

grades: K - 8/sec II maximum: 30 students
full day: two 2 hour

materials: included in all workshop prices

Curriculum links: Story creation (characters, place, plot, solution); speaking or oral expression; leadership and team work; visual analysis of a text (theatre set, costumes, accessories); paper cutout notions, silhouettes, shadow, transparency, opacity, colour.
Values: Sharing ideas, respect, self confidence, creativity

Grants available, see below for two programs.


For more information please Contact me!


or visit the following website for two program that represent me:

Programme La culture à l'école
http://www.mels.gouv.qc.ca/sections/cultureEducation/

MASC/Connecting Artists and Learning
http://masconline.ca/

Creating a shadow puppet performance

Album photos Shadow theater show created with the students of an Outaouais's primary school

Creating a Shadow Puppet performance A school-wide collective project (5 days or longer)

Working with the artist, each class of students brainstorms to develop characters and scenarios, expanding on the storyline from previous groups. As the story unfolds, Marie-France Thibault creates shadow puppets and designs the characters and set, inspired by the students’ ideas. The students then have the opportunity create their own silhouettes, to narrate the story and manipulate the puppets behind the screen-stage of the shadow theatre. The final production is presented to all the participants, highlighting the value of creativity and collaboration.

grades: K - 8/sec II
minimum: 9 classes of 30 students
five full days: two 2 hour sessions + one show on the last afternoon
materials: included in all workshop prices

Curriculum links: Story creation (characters, place, plot, solution); speaking or oral expression; leadership and team work; visual analysis of a text (theatre set, costumes, accessories); paper cutout notions, silhouettes, shadow, transparency, opacity, colour.
Values: Listening to others, sharing ideas, respect, self confidence, creativity, collectivism.

Grants available, see below for two programs.


For more information please Contact me!


or visit the following website for two program that represent me:

Programme La culture à l'école
http://www.mels.gouv.qc.ca/sections/cultureEducation/

MASC/Connecting Artists and Learning
http://masconline.ca/