In Montreal, journalist Louis-Philippe Messier travels mostly on the run, his desk in his backpack, on the lookout for fascinating subjects and people. He speaks to everyone and is interested in all walks of life in this urban chronicle.
A former restorer of medieval houses in England and France is now dedicated to creating trees made of twisted copper wire that seem to emerge from the mists of Fangorn Forest in the Lord of the Rings.
After arousing curiosity at the last Salon des artisans de Québec, the booth of the Bonsaï ERN workshop intrigues visitors to the Salon des métiers d’arts du Québec at the convention center.
In front of these little trees, I become the ten thousandth naive person to ask the same question as everyone else and to be told the same thing:
“No, they’re not dead trees! Everything is made of metal,” sculptor Michael Dinardo disabuses me.
“I twist copper wire to form the trunk and branches, then I solder the stems to fuse the wires with molten lead,” says the man who takes a week to design just one of these bonsai.
These little trees which seem so real betray their metallic composition by their weight.
The smallest ones retail for $150 and the largest ones, $1250.
Photo Louis-Philippe Messier
Acid watercolors
How do you make up lichen on trunks?
“I use acid watercolors to color the metals, and I sprinkle the trunks with copper dust which I oxidize,” he explains.
In short, Mr. Dinardo does to his trees what the passage of decades of bad weather does to old statues.
“I make them take fifty years in an hour,” he sums up.
Mr. Dinardo has typical gestures of a hairdresser for long hair when he replaces the branches of one of his works.
And this was indeed his first school: the hairdressing salon… very useful for handling copper wires barely thinner than hair.
He worked for a long time at Estetica on Crescent Street.
“I washed the hair of most of the women in Westmount,” says with a laugh this jack of all trades who restored old houses in England and France by learning how to make lime walls.
It was a sculptor from the Eastern Townships, Paul-André Leblanc, who passed on his technique to make these metal trees:
“It’s this technique that I’ve been perfecting for three years,” explains Mr. Dinardo, based in Frelighsburg.
The artist must constantly re-explain that his trees are not real… that everything is made of metal. In defense of the public, the realism of the works is striking.
Photo Louis-Philippe Messier
Eureka!
A month ago, the sculptor experienced a eureka.
“I discovered how to make much more refined roots by reserving copper rods that I twist at the very end so as to better integrate the root system into the base stone,” he enthuses.
Mr. Dinardo recently developed a new technique to form roots that are much more refined and better integrated into the stone.
Photo Louis-Philippe Messier
Where does he find these picturesque base stones?
“I take walks with my three Scottish terriers in the nearby forest and I spot the most inspiring rocks around the streams,” he confides.
He then returns by mountain bike to bring back the stones that fell in his eye.
The 63-year-old artist plans to make “eternal bonsai” for the rest of his life.
But that’s if he manages to maintain his patience when countless new curious people ask him: “Oh! So, you sell small dead trees?”
The Arts and Crafts Fair
At the Montreal Convention Center
Until December 22
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