Coeur de Pirate - Corbeau - Elisabeth Perron

I first heard Coeur de Pirate last summer at the Calgary Folk Festival 2011 and fell in love with her style and voice (her tattoos are pretty amazing too). I'm particularly excited about this Art 4 Art project as it is our first bilingual post and I encourage more bilingual content, whether in the form of music as inspiration or as artistic outcome. My good friend Elisabeth has taken Coeur de Pirate's song "Corbeau" as inspiration and written a short story. Although Liz has given a brief explanation of "Corbeau" in English, the beautiful thing about Coeur de Pirate's music is that you can still connect with it, regardless of language. It is truly wonderful.

Here is Liz to take you away...

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I fell in love with Coeur de Pirate when her first song "Comme des Enfants"became a YouTube sensation because one famous francophone journalist had used it as a soundtrack to his son playing with his toys (don't ask). As soon as I stepped foot in Quebec, I ran to buy her CD and listened to it the first time around without stopping until the end. I died a little. She is basically everything I could possible ask from an artist, wrapped up in a fantastic Quebecoise-French bow. 

I picked the song "Corbeau" for three reasons. First, I obviously had to pick a French song to stand out a little! Second, I read an interview with Coeur de Pirate in which someone asks her the meaning of the song, or at least the title (which literally translates as "Raven"). Her answer was so vague and mysterious, it made me want to analyze more for myself. Finally, I picked it because it's a lesser known song from her first album, but I love it so much I just want everyone to know it!

Essentially, the song is about a couple at the end of their relationship. One of them has remained very free and unattached, which the other has really "become" the relationship, so to speak. The song takes the perspective of the second person, explaining how difficult it is to break free, to start over, to let go. 

Wilted Soul

She sat on the edge of the bed, unsure whether to lie down or stand up. Next to her, he slept, unaware that she was awake. She looked at him and found herself thinking about the first time they'd met.

She was seduced from the moment he introduced himself. It wasn't love at first sight; that seemed like a silly concept in comparison to what she had felt. With him, she was home, she was reuniting with an old friend, she was curled up on a couch with her favourite blanket. That's the best way she could describe it with words. It had been one of those nights where, in retrospect, nothing grand really happened. But in the moment, it had been perfect. Two of her friends had been present too, but that was kind of a blur. It was all about him.

Four years. She was very fond of those four years. They had spent them apart, reunited, apart, reunited...but never really together. Yet they had grown closer. She had told him her dreams, her hopes, her fears. Her everything.

After four years, she had felt like it was meant to be. A modern fairytale. But it wasn't. It was her golden cage.

The truth is, she had placed her soul in his hands. It was no longer hers to control, to share. That would all have been more than okay with her, had she given her soul in return for his. At the time, she had been so focused on opening up and letting him in, she hadn't realized that he wasn't doing the same. He was free, because he was the only one who truly knew who he was.

So now there she was, unsure whether to leave or stay. Without him, she wasn't herself anymore. She was a paler, more toned down version. She didn't laugh as loudly, she didn't seem as bubbly, she didn't argue for what she believed in. Because she didn't really know what she believed in anymore.

No one would understand her like he did. No one would know how vibrant and bold she once had been. Her ambitions, once boundless and all-consuming, had been watered down to the simple will to get by. She had completely lost herself in him, and he had let her.

Slowly, she got up. She tiptoed out of the room. She opened the front door, stepped outside, and closed it quietly. Outside, the rain felt like ice against her skin. She was leaving what she knew, her comfort zone. But sometimes, it's the end and all that's left to do is make a dramatically quiet exit and start over. It kinda felt like one of those times.

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Elisabeth Perron is kinda close to graduating with a degree in chemical engineering, which she plans to never use again. She wears white socks unapologetically, is constantly getting dirty looks for laughing too loudly in quiet places, and always carries an umbrella just in case. You can check out her ditz (and occasional wit) over at Liz on Life. 

See more of our contributors and other Art 4 Art projects on the contributors page.

Coeur de Pirate is a singer-songwriter from Quebec. More of her beautiful music can be found at her website, Coeur de Pirate. Check it out. You won't regret it. 

Two Hours Traffic - Heroes of the Sidewalk - Tara Abel

This post could not come at a more opportune moment: just after that really cold spell of January, just as mornings, still pitch black, are harder to wake up to, just as the ice becomes slush and our world becomes a dull kaleidoscope of grey. It is during late January that we actively seek out signs of Spring and yearn for the days of Summer. Tara's project provides an escape from the dreary days of Winter and throws us into a Summer not too long past. Celebratory while simultaneously downhearted, Tara captures perfectly the "clumsiness of youth," our susceptibility to the future and reconciles with the paths that separate us, inevitably so.

Tara draws her inspiration from the track "Heroes of the Sidewalk" by Two Hours Traffic. Two Hours Traffic is from Charlottetown, PEI and formed in 2000. I encourage you to listen to the track below before diving into Tara's poem. If you like what you hear, visit Two Hour Traffic's website. Now, I leave you to Tara and her beautiful project.

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I hadn't listened to "Heroes of the Sidewalk" in quite a while but I suddenly found myself playing it on repeat. I realized that the song will forever remind me of Summer and a certain camping trip that I went on with my close friends a few years back. In the car, I remember hearing it play over and over, and I was hooked. That camping trip was one of the last big events that I recall spending with (some of the members of) that group of friends, before most of use started to really go our own ways. There isn't really a non-cheesy way to say it, so I'll just say that "Heroes of the Sidewalk" had me missing old times, and dear friends. This poem is the result of a nostalgic Tuesday afternoon.

setting out
into the last of the summer's heat
rattling down the highway
stopping far too often
hearts too elated to be bothered
by all the time that was escaping them

quiet dusty towns on yet another flat stretch
roads starting to disappear
hidden by a great depth of trees
this was it

with stars as the only thing
puncturing the black
they shrank close together
trying to defend one another from the cold
falling, laughing

they conquered the mountain
side by side, they stood at the top
letting the hues of pink and orange enchant them
they tried to hold it captive
still after still
they didn't know

quirks they had grown to
hold so dear
adventure they had dreamed of together
would render them apart
over and down the hills
watching the dust settle in their wake

now
only a fiercely loyal few return
when they're together
sometimes there's an air
reminiscent of the warmth of their summertime
stumbling nights
crossing over fences
running through fields hidden by darkness
not knowing where their feet would land
the clumsiness of their youth

they didn't know
when was the instance
that they'd moved on

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This is Tara Abel's second contribution to Art 4 Art. You can find her first project inspired by Samantha Savage Smith here. For more on Tara and her other work, visit the contributors page  or her blog Maybe, Matilda. 

Chic Gamine - Butterfly Woman - Chelsea Kelba

I promised a second A4A post this week and here it is, me following through on my promise (although my own second project hasn't exactly materialized). I have been blown away by the creativity and resourcefulness of recent contributions and like Steph's re-shaping of duct tape into white roses, Chelsea has taken musical scores and fashioned stunning origami. Predominantly a literal interpretation of Chic Gamine's track "Butterfly Woman", Chelsea also incorporates a layered effect in her mobile, as well as using multiple shades of colour, capturing the many overlapping blankets of Chic Gamine's sweet sound.

Chic Gamine is a Canadian band founded back in 2007 and originating from a number of provinces before finally become a collective in Montreal. They identify themselves as having a Roots/Soul sound and if you like what you hear in the clip below, be sure to check out their myspace page here.

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I first heard Chic Gamine at the opening gala for Calgary Folk Festival 2011. There were a handful of artists doing live performances, most of whom I'd never heard of. We were standing there, watching, when four women and a man stood up and took the mic. What happened next was magical. This incredibly talented group sang several of their beautiful acapella songs and I was hooked. I picked up their two albums the next day at the Fest. What strikes me most is their versatility - they can jump between acapella, instrumental accompaniment, English, and Quebecois French with ease; sometimes within the same song.

I picked "Butterfly Woman" because it was one of the first songs I'd heard from them, and it is still one of my favourites. To be totally honest, I also picked it because I knew it'd be easy to make art from. Origami is a hobby of mine - no, for real. I usually make flower bouquets and give them away as gifts (between all my other material crafts, I hardly have room to keep any). This was my first foray into making a mobile, and the first time I used butterflies in a project. The song is also evocative of change and transformation, which butterflies exemplify through their metamorphosis. I hope you feel as inspired and liberated as I did when first hearing the song.

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Chelsea Kelba is soon to be finished a degree in Health Sciences, a program she would not recommend to anyone. In her spare time she volunteers on a crisis line, and dreams of being a social worker. Most of her crafting activities are those that don't translate well to digital media, such as knitting, knit art, wax stamp carving, pumpkin carving, and origami. She is probably one of the last people that does not have a blog.

For more A4A projects and contributors, see the contributors page. 

Feist - A Commotion - Stephanie Kincaid

I know, I know, I know. I promised more Art 4 Art for 2012 and it's already January 17th. New Year's Resolution FAIL. I've had a few friends badgering me to get more projects online so, in an attempt to stop those nagging voices (you know who you are), I hope to post a couple of A4A projects this week, as well as work on a second project of my own.

This next project is absolutely wonderful and so very different. When Steph first emailed me back in November, my mind was blown. First of all, Steph wasn't a friend or acquaintance who had heard my constant ramblings about this blog and consequently gotten involved; Steph heard about A4A through the grapevine. Secondly, Steph lives in Revelstoke. Mind blown, again. How A4A has left Calgary, let alone Alberta, astounds me. Finally, once Steph and I got to talking about possible projects and her talents as an artist, she told me that she likes to work with duct tape (not going to lie, I was a little worried about this). But still. Mind blown x 3.

Anyway, Steph has taken Feist's track "A Commotion" from her album Metals and created a mixed medium painting, incorporating her magical skills with duct tape. Prepare to have your own mind blown.

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I loved Feist from the moment "Mushaboom" was played through my speakers. To this day I still get butterflies when it comes on. Naturally, when I stumbled across Art 4 Art, Feist was a definite go to. Her new album Metals is everything she is. Amazing. 

Leslie's voice has been one of those things I've always gone back to over the years. If I need a mellow moment I can find bliss within her lyrics and rhythms. She so easily brings me back to zero. To be honest, I could probably pick any number of songs off that album and say they inspired me to do this project, but "A Commotion" was the song playing when this idea had come into my head. 

The sense of urgency in the chorus pushed my idea out and onto paper. All I could see was a rose bush and it needed to be dark. Yet balanced. Once I actually started this painting it went in a much more abstract direction then intended, but I loved it more. From there I decided to use my duct tape skills and instead of actually painting the roses, which I'm not sure I would have been good enough to do, I crafted them. I chose the white tape as apposed to other colours in my artillery for the subtle contrast against the twilight purple. Just enough to keep the roses strong, yet feminine.

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Stephanie Kincaid has grown up in the small town of Revelstoke B.C. She lives in a small, not so sound proof apartment, with her boyfriend and three snakes. Working as a grocery store bakery slave, you can usually find her slinging dough and flexing muscles. Unfortunately for everyone else, she's got a sick sense of humour and loves expressing herself artistically. Painting, assorted crafts and film are her usual go to cures for boredom, however, duct tape has been her favourite go to medium for the past 10 years. Check out Steph's lomography here and follow her blog that she says is updated less than regularly. See the contributor's page for more info.