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February/March Edition 2003
Eastern Arts & Culture
Toronto, Ontario
Reviews
MOVIES/TELEVISION
BRAVO! Television
James Picard: Off The Canvas
Director: Chris Hooper
Becky Pendleton
The best and truest way to understand the source of creation is through the words, thoughts and images of the source itself. Director Christopher Hooper approaches this source and allows us a glimpse at both the mystery and the madness that is James Picard. A Canadian artist who is, without a doubt one of the renown misunderstood unknowns of our time.
To view his frenzied creations flying across the television screen at full speed is to get a glimpse at the personality of a perverse polymorph. Working in many mediums and piling his daily output against the previous days work, it reminds one of Picasso or Matisse. His dedication, according to those patrons and peers interviewed in the movie, is unheard of in this day and age which enhance the myth of Picard, the artist and creator extraordinaire. His dramatic use of luminosity of unmixed paints gives the impression of being companion pieces to the Fauves or School of Paris artists. There is a dark side as well, briefly touched on, but haunting none-the-less. It is a brief glimpse into the demons that tug and clutch at the artist’s mind, while he struggles to break free from the torment of images that possess him. All in all it gives us an in depth look into the realm of the artist and aids in a better understanding of the unrelenting need to express one’s creativity.