It was a nice day, finally, last Sunday, so I went to rue Ste. Catherine East between Papineau and Berri to take in the FIMA, or Festival Montreal des Arts. Basically, the street is blocked off, and a lot of artists set up there in tents, to display and hawk their wares.
I myself did a kind of indifferent sketch above. Was sort of jangled, and people kept on coming up to me and asking inane questions, like I was part of the show. One guy asked me why I bothered sketching, when I could get an image much more quickly and accurately by taking a picture.
Well, I did take pictures, and here they are:
This is another artist, also sketching the street. Maybe in a little more of a controlled way.
Her in her tent, with her paintings:
Some of her pictures, lined up on the table.
The art’s kind of middle of the road. Stuff I’m not totally crazy about, but might look good in your living room. But since this area is known as Montreal’s “Gay Village,” there was lots of other stuff to see:
Scooters outside the local leather bar:
“Beach” volleyball:
Another typical sight on the street, especially in this area around this season:
These people were inside an empty mobile home, enacting the entire script of the movie The Fifth Element.
There’s video of this, which I will share when it’s online. Generally, a lot of fun was had, which is part of what art is about.
Tags: montreal, photos, visual art
We sadly missed this festival. We didn’t even know it was going on until we decided to walk through the Village after a Sunday afternoon at the Jazz fest… then we saw all the huts closing up and asked a lady if there were more days coming up… nope, that was the end of FIMA. Darn darn darn!
Oh well. Lots of festivals, and the street stays blocked off. Of course, on my street they’re breaking up the new sidewalks for a make-work project. The potholed road stays.