New Doors!!

From J'adoor!

The whole door. The middle is a piece of bamboo with a bundle of dried bones attached - and with 2 dried and starched seagull heads at each extremity. None of them is Jonathan Livingston Seagull - but they might be his grandchildren...

From J'adoor!

African Which doctor amidsts a background of checkered flying saucers

From J'adoor!

Strange Tim Burton-esque victorian era type doll face which Sioux face painting? Thread bobby as a face on a background of 'mikado' sticks.

From J'adoor!

Please don't flag this as "objectionable content" it's actually art. And old black and white photo (taken by Franklin Amzallag in the 60s) and that same Sioux victorian era dolls four hands trying to a) protect the women b) molest her c) insert other idea here.
And all this framed by dominos and a scalpel. Charming...

From J'adoor!

Old fabric from a 70s era pillow - appearantly being used as the skin/body/frame of teeth, an old dried up turtle head (yes, it is), and pieces of a piano (the pieces that hit the chord to make the noice when you press a key down) fanning out around th macabre dried up turtle piece like a lovely musical butterfly. From a dead piano.

5 more doors to be showcased ASAP -- stay tuned... aah no pun intented.

Don't Get Too Excited Just Yet... re: Vélib' / Bixi

Comment on the hour's piece on Bixi: http://www.hour.ca/news/news.aspx?iIDArticle=17263

When I was in Paris September 2007 -- I too fell in love with vélib'. I'd herd then that they were thinking about implementing this in Montreal, but I thought -- "how would it work?" ... You know...what with a 6 month winter and all.

The vélib' bike was like a heavy, stable dutch bicyle. I was particularly fond of this type of bike design because you could ride with a straight back. Chest out, shoulders back. I was able to wear fitted blazers on it without being scared of ripping my clothes (think a speed-bike rider crouched forward, or an person riding a mountain bike in the city, half slouching, half leaning forward.. awkward...

THIS was like riding an urban two-wheel tank with terrific torque. What a pleasure.

I was in vélib' heaven.

Aaaah oui MAIS! After relying on the vélib' for a week (averaging 2 euros a day!), I began to notice the draw backs. And this might be an issue in montreal as well.


At certain times during the day, people are all leaving their residential neighborhoods at the same time to go to work neighborhoods. At night, people are all leaving their work neighborhoods to go home. And then from home to the movies, or bars, or gym, or downtown.

Do you see where I'm going here?

In Paris when I needed a bike in the 16ème, no problem. But then when I arrived to the 5ème -- all the bike bays were full. No where to park it. So I had to search for an open bay for blocks and blocks, or I'd have to tie it up with the attached bike lock and get charged additional euros for every half hour it wasn't docked.

Coming back from the bars? All the bikes would be in use, gone! When you did find a bike? Your residential neighborhood's bike bays would all be full. Same problem!

Now perhaps Montreal has a better distribution of residents / bar areas (e.g. old montreal, plateau, mile-end)... We'll see what happens.

I hope it works out well...

Portes Épiques

Of course, this is not how one is supposed to write "adore". But my father could never resist a good pun. Or any pun for that matter...

An other thing he could never resist was showing off his awesome art... So you could imagine my surprise when upon his retirement around the age of 54 -- he wasn't even considering showing his doors let alone selling them !!

(he's now made about 40 over the span of 35 years)


To all those who might have had the chance of passing by one of his 3 houses in Montreal, St-Germain-en-Laye, or Truro (Quebec, Yvelines and Massachusetts* respectively) then by all means invite your friends to come take a look !

The rest of you can just sit tight.

Now... where was I? ...Right.

While all the walls are scattered with his own artistic black and white photography of nude women (who may or may not have been ex's too... "O-M-G no WAY!"), creatively designed family photos and random antique artifacts & ephemera, the real sticking points for visitors were always the doors.


Can you picture a wrinkly wombat wearing a miniature football jersey, way-farer ray-bans, and a straw stetson hat on stilts?

Well .. neither can I but I thought we could try.

Then picture a collage of African Dada-like Native-American FOLK Art framed in a big wooden door... Assembled in the mind of a deeply disturbed French-Moroccan Canadian immigrant.

...Yes, well I liked the wombat too.