LoveFriday - Stencils' Love

A stencil is both the template used for, and the resulting image coming out of, the artistic technique known as stencilling.

This broken heart may be a bad example of a pochoir, which is another denomination for the stencil process and product. Because I'm not really sure if it should be considered as one, since I've never made such kind of graffiti myself.

Maybe it isn't the same procedure at work, but I did find it hanging around other mini tags which would themselves qualify, and this one sure conveys the theme of #lovefriday.

You can probably find stencils in almost any large city, but for me it was during a trip to Quebec City, that I discovered the existence of those little street art icons.

Don't know if it's for cultural reasons, but these things are much more present there than in my hometown of Montreal.

I took lots of them back with me as photographies, but on this lovingness day, I'll be mostly sharing drawings representing concepts which the Roman Goddess Venus generally embodies.

Some being left out from this present post, can be found somewhere along my past publication entitled Quebec City's Murals.

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V for... Voluptuous? Venereal? Vulva? Vagina? Vulgar? Vice? Vengeance? Vendetta? Violence? Vault? Velvet? Virginity? Virility? Vitality? Valentine? Venus herself?

All words expressing something of a more or less Visceral nature.

But again, even if I'm under the impression that I hitted the nail of the topic on the head, I can't argue about the fact that, for the second time, it was a near-miss toward confronting the reader with a perfect example of what is a pochoir.

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Here, you've just got a good sample of what my rambling actually is about, and not only a quick flash, but a thrice at once exposition to it.

These side-by-side multiple representations of the exact same image implicitely demonstrate the method at play of spreading paint through some kind of plaque shaped in the form of the artist's inspiration.

Now, that I finally shared the essence of stencilling, let me show you Émile Nelligan's romanticism. He is considered to be one of French Canada's greatest poets. I don't know what Nelligan Vous Observe (Nelligan Is Watching You) is about, but you'll surely be the one looking at his bowels down below.

Amour immaculé

Je sais en une église un vitrail merveilleux
Où quelque artiste illustre, inspiré des archanges,
A peint d'une façon mystique, en robe à franges,
Le front nimbé d'un astre, une Sainte aux yeux bleus.

Le soir, l'esprit hanté de rêves nébuleux
Et du céleste écho de récitals étranges,
Je m'en viens la prier sous les lueurs oranges
De la lune qui luit entre ses blonds cheveux.

Telle sur le vitrail de mon coeur je t'ai peinte,
Ma romanesque aimée, ô pâle et blonde sainte,
Toi, la seule que j'aime et toujours aimerai;

Mais tu restes muette, impassible, et, trop fière,
Tu te plais à me voir, sombre et désespéré,
Errer dans mon amour comme en un cimetière!

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My own translation in English:

Immaculate love

I know in a church of a marvelous stained-glassed window
Where some illustrious artist, inspired by the archangels,
Did paint in a mystical fashion, in jingle dress,
The forehead adorned with a star, a Saint with blue eyes.

At night, the mind haunted by nebulous dreams
And from the celestial echo of strange recitals,
I come to pray to her under the orange gleams
Of the moon that shines through her blonde hair.

Like on the stained-glass window of my heart I have painted you,
My romantic love, o pale and blonde saint,
You, the only one I love and will always love;

But you stay mute, impassible, and, troo proud,
You take joy in seeing me, gloomy and desperate,
Wander in my love like in a cemetary!

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Of course, changing the language totally transforms the lyrical quality of the poem, so here is its sound when recited in French, which you can combine, if it pleases you, with the worded meaning conveyed in the Englified text.

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I'm leaving you on your own with the last two images, which are certainly stencil works, but not necessarily coming from the heart.

I've worked hard to sew a story around those pictures, so now it's your turn to seek inside and find all the love to assign to those following.

Why Must I Be a Crustacean in Love?

How can I erase love from my heart?