In 2021, I was the artist in residence at the Musée du Sault where I prepared paintings on paper and fabric to make installations exploring the French-speaking history of the Sault. Painting is always very present in my artistic universe. Over the years, I taught myself simple digital video editing tools like iMovie, Garage Band and the Canva app, Cap Cut, and as I set up my websites, made a Youtube account, used Instagram, I I started a shift towards new media. Since painting is demanding in terms of space, materials, and connections with galleries in order to make it “sustainable” or “viable,” and given that I am a woman in my fifties, not having those connections yet, I decided to mix practices and move towards new media, video, installation; to allow me to pay for my studio and my materials. The beginnings were really difficult. I had never learned much about Adobe Photoshop because I was raising my children when it was the time to learn that. I persevered and created a first video in parallel with an online conversation group with two friends, Elsie Suréna and Awa Dembele-Yeno. I created “ex/in/an térieurs” a short 3-minute film with a green screen in my courtyard as well as at a location located at the entrance of Saint-Joseph Island, a magnificent place that has greatly inspired my writing. This short film was exhibited at a Franco-Ontarian film festival in Toronto, at the “Court Toujours” Festival in 2023 and at the GNO in the group exhibition “Projections.” I didn't give up and continued my work by applying for a Media Arts grant which was refused the first time and accepted the second time. Thanks to the Ontario Arts Council and the Government of Ontario, I will present this major project for Culture Days in September and October 2024.

To read an article about this project: https://levoyageur.ca/tag/isabelle-michaud/

To see the link on the Ontario Culture Days website: https://culturedays.ca/en/events/168c35ee-8c1f-415d-83dd-dea0a8e5ec47

Isa Michaud, ex/in/an térieurs, 6’X6’X4’ media installation, metal frame, paper screens, video projections, 3 projectors, laptop, 2024.

The screens: artisanal paper made from wood and cattails, artisanal bioplastic (gelatin and glycerin), plants, architectural plans, eggshell-based paste, mica varnish and xantham gum, vegetable watercolor, old screen printing.

List of short films:

“Do you hear me?”, Procreate animations, iPhone 13 video, pinhole photographs, VHS video file Sault Panorama Museum Archives (1993), mixed with iMovie, Garageband, 00:2:07, 2024.

"Parental Images", family slide scans, iPhone video, mixed in iMovie, 00:02:16, 2024.

"Line Study\Étude linéaire", Procreate Animations, Garageband, mixed in iMovie, 00:01:37, 2024.

"Devaney", Procreate animation, video filmed with Canon Rebel T3, mixed with iMovie, music created with a 1990s Roland synthesizer mixed with Garageband, 00:01:08, 2024.

“The Train to Nowhere”, Video from June 5, 2024 Mattawa with iPhone 13, diary entries from 1978, ambient sound video file of a train in London, June 11, 2024 iPhone 13, poetry mixed in iMovie, 00:00: 41, 2024.

“Papa Paquebot”, video filmed on iPhone 13, sound mixed in Garageband with a Roland synth, with family photos and poems read in iMovie, 00:03:01, 2024.

“Drizzle”, Procreate animation, Poem mixed with Garageband, Roland Synth, video filmed on iPhone 13, iMovie, 00:01:35, 2024.

Text-based animations:

“Invaded”, Procreate, 2024.

“Embedded Bursts”, Procreate, 2024.