Jamey Piedalue
Bio
Jamey Piedalue was born in Montreal in the early 1960’s. A graduate of McGill University, he studied both film and art history. As a student of industrial relations during the tumultuous decades of the 70’s and 80’s, Jamey became deeply involved in social justice and issues of poverty and homelessness. After graduation, he moved to Toronto where he graduated with a Masters in Sociology from York University. He immediately began a long career of advocacy and action on behalf the homeless and disadvantaged. He currently resides in Blomidon, Nova Scotia after having left a 30+ year career in mental health policy and direct suicide-intervention.
As a result of years of dealing mental trauma and suicide-intervention, Jamey was diagnosed with crippling PTSD in the mid-2010’s. During his course of treatment, he began a therapeutic course of art therapy and thus embarked on his journey as an artist working the mediums of collage and photography. His work delves into provocative juxtapositions of pop culture images, industrial decay, and historical injustice. Through collage, he explores significant political and social issues of our century, while his photography resonates with the beauty of the ordinary as well as insightful commentary on the industrial and commercial landscapes that define our urban core.
Jamey’s commissions hang in private collections in Montreal and Toronto. His work has been exhibited at the Canadian Mental Health Association’s Annual Mosaic for Mental Health.
About my work
The goal of my collage work, once an idea is formed, is to create densely saturated imagery that convey small stories that are the foundation of the piece. I love the idea of an observer thinking “I never noticed that before”... I do enjoy using iconic and revered images as well
as every day throwaways that are at once beautiful while invisible. The images are culled, then each is cut to its essence whether a Beatles' cover or a Picasso or a First Edition Book cover, stamps, currency, and my own photographs or collages etc.
As the process unfolds, the piece looks like a “tattered pop-culture topographical map” where I edit, refine, tear away... akin to working with clay... where the completed piece looks nothing like the original starting point. The process is detailed and time consuming.
And I get lost in the flow when the pieces are evolving. The completed piece is then scanned or photographed and printed on William Turner
paper. These prints are far more beautiful than the original tattered work; the density of the paper coupled with the large amount of ink used, turns the image into a hybrid of a painting and photo. The individual pieces seemingly all connected.
Artist's Review
Through what initially looks like fragmentation, his creations become an emotional journey towards making-whole again. Jamey combines strong visual slashes of colour with pictures from sport to history to personal memories, and the more we look at his pictures the more layers appear with humour and hope through pictorial flashbacks that at times suggest trauma then healing.
Art has the effect of making the audience look within themselves, bringing a memory here, a recognition there. And from this can come a sense of discovery.
Jamey’s work involves his audience and makes us take a longer look, and so we spend more time rather than just walking by. He makes Statements, but the Statements are those that we end up making ourselves. In so doing, we also escape from the present, and this makes his Artwork relevant to each person who responds, in the same way we respond to other media such as Music or Film.
(From: Reference to Jamey's work by Ben Ng, Toronto Artist & Photographer)