The Art of Becoming: A Journey Through Sound, Color, and Self
For Monique Désy Proulx, art is less a profession than an identity that has shaped her from a young age. Her mother’s legacy instilled a love of the arts, and she has never separated sound from image, music from color. A classically trained pianist, Monique initially pursued a career in the musical world as a performer, composer, and accompanist. Yet painting and drawing remained a constant parallel passion—first scrawled in school notebooks, then explored more seriously through formal instruction as a teenager under the guidance of Jeanne Vanasse, a student of the notable Quebec painter Jean-Paul Lemieux. That early exposure to 20th-century European masters planted seeds that would flourish decades later into a distinct visual language. Now defining herself as a “multi-indisciplinary” artist, she embraces a hybrid path where various creative disciplines interact, complementing and amplifying each other.
This duality has only deepened with time. While Monique has long worked in both music and visual arts, it wasn’t until recent years—especially during the Covid period—that her commitment to painting evolved into a profound exploration of personal meaning and style. Her approach to the canvas echoes her work at the piano: a spontaneous interplay of intuition, gesture, and rhythm. She begins by making contrasting marks, allowing chaos to emerge. From this energetic base, she extracts forms and intentions, often layering in collaged elements such as old musical scores that serve as symbolic bridges between her two creative worlds. Sanding, scratching, and manipulating paint layers, she brings forward the hidden textures underneath, injecting each work with emotion, sensuality, and a sense of discovery. It’s a process that not only unveils the image, but also reveals aspects of herself, making painting an act of inner transformation.
While she has always known that she was an artist—thanks, in part, to the constant affirmations of those around her—Monique admits it took time to fully accept this role. The label “artist” once felt burdensome, even disorienting, in a society that often prizes conventional careers. For years, she worked in communications and publishing, often in roles connected to cultural institutions and museums. Yet her artistic life never paused; it simply ran parallel. Everything changed when she moved to the countryside over fifteen years ago and converted an old chicken coop into a hybrid space where she could paint, compose, and host events. This bold move marked the turning point. Now fully immersed in her art, she organizes exhibitions, participates in artist collectives, and prepares for the release of her upcoming album «Les herbes folles», which tells her story in song. Art, for Monique, is not a compartment—it is the architecture of her entire life.
