No Such Extremes​

Medium: Oil on canvas.

Size 60 x 48” (152.4 x 121.92 cm)

Year: 2025

​

​

No Such Extremes explores the delicate equilibrium of the human condition: the tension between passionate, complicated love and the opposing pulls of animal desire and spiritual devotion.

The painting is built on contrasts. Deep, sensual textures, dense and indulgent like salty caviar, meet the light, fleeting sparkle of champagne bubbles. These sensations evoke more than taste. They carry pleasure, restraint, and reverence, all coexisting on one canvas.

The painting does not try to resolve this duality. It honors it, offering a visual dialogue between inner conflict and reconciliation. It is carnal and sacred, chaotic and composed. It reflects what it means to love with both flesh and soul, and to find balance by holding both at once instead of choosing one.

The poem

The work was inspired by “No Such Extremes” by R.S. Edgar, which I found in the Rare Books collection at McGill University, in First Statement magazine (1942).

[Insert poem here, with permission or attribution as appropriate]

The making

I painted this piece outdoors at Vanier College in Ville Saint-Laurent on May 5, 2025, a sunny day of about 17°C with a slight breeze, the first warm day of spring.

Both the poem and the painting affected me deeply. They made me reflect on growing up in a strict religious household, and on how much I needed balance in my life.

The painting was exhibited at a private event on ekphrastic cuisine, which moves beyond the visual language of food and texture to tell stories through taste.