I think many artists, at some point, have to decide whether to show an object as “consensual reality” would portray it, or show it as they see it through their own inner eye.

I first faced this dilemma in  2006 when  I took a picture of a tree reflection in a puddle on the road. Back then the Chemin Riviere Maskinonge was little more than colorful gravel with a dash of asphalt. Horrible for driving, but wonderful for creating watery mirrors to show off the trees lining the road. I saw a beautiful puddle, but as soon as I started to photograph it, my inner eye began rotating it until suddenly I was looking at a fox’s face. However, the longer I stared at it the more I began to feel that I was literally inside the puddle, in some marvellous other world, perceiving the tree from above. The conflict was how to frame it? Vertically so that it was clearly a puddle on a road? Or horizontally, as I saw it, like a portal into another world? God bless Wendell for strongly encouraging me to go with “my vision,” and forget about consensual reality. So, I framed it horizontally, and named it The Underworld Tree

The next experience like this came soon after. I was photographing reflections on the Rouge River near the old dam, as I often did. It was a perfect morning, no wind and bright sun. I took a picture of a diamond shaped rock that was perfectly reflected in a puddle. When I went home and put it on the computer, I saw that I had captured a bird flying high in the sky; just a dot, but it was the inspiration. I turned it upside down and voila! It became a cliff in Utah under a bright blue sky, except for one strange thing: a diamond shaped rock suspended in mid-air. I’ve always loved Salvador Dali, so I called this one Salvador Diamond Rock.  I remember when I framed it big and put it right in the center of my booth. Everyone stopped to look and ask me how I did that? Much later I used that image on one of my fridge magnets. It said: “Solutions come when you change your perspective.”

Another time I felt compelled to display an image “as I saw it” was when I was walking through Parc La Fontaine in Montreal, and saw these beautiful reeds undulating gently in the water. 

I also loved the fluidity and colour of the clouds reflected in the water and decided to let them be the sky. When I printed it big it triggered a little fantasy in me of being in a boat heading through the thick reeds into open water. I decided to call it Into the Mystic.

The Underworld Tree, limited edition print $95; Salvador Diamond Rock 16 x 20 limited edition print $90; Into the Mystic-17 X 24 canvas framed- originally $375, now $260