Elements of Multiplicity

Here is a capture of an untitled work executed in 2008. It is part of a project that I began during my final year at Concordia University in 1995-96. I had called it “peripheral vision art”, and later renamed it the “Nature of Multiplicity.” It is a work which I thought I would have completed by now but it seems to still linger on; mostly in pieces within dusty shoe boxes and plastic bins amongst the tubes of hardening paint.
The capture represents about 250 small works, a fragment of the completed project which is meant to be exposed on a 45 X 8 feet galvanized steel wall. You can preview a model at http://www.patche.ca thanks to the dedicated work of my father Guy Chevalier, programming wizard extraordinaire, but only a quarter of the works needed to completed the first phase of the project are there. It remains unfinished while I plod on.
It seems that when I began this project in earnest in 1996 I completely misjudged my capacity to overcome life's challenges. I figured a couple of years hiatus from completing my degree at University would allow me some time to build up professional skills, give me more space to grow as an artist and by getting a “real” job, give me the means to pay some heavy bills associated with dedicating oneself to a calling.
Consequently I’ve never been capable of dedicating myself to the calling, completely. I refused to accept the romanticized label of “starving artist” or “rascal bohemian.” I chose to have a “rich life” and so my artist’s credentials suffer. Now it seems I’m a starving professional with bills, responsibilities and “manageable” dept. What kind of dichotomy is this? What kind of cosmic train have I been riding? Why have I stalled so many times?
Well, seeing that the trip isn’t over I am far from conceding defeat but what a miserable time it is to reflect on these little failures. How big they can become at the right moment, the right time.