Françoise Bujold
Françoise Bujold, Artist and Poet (1933-1981)
Letter from a friend:
I knew and accompanied Françoise Bujold the last three years of her life, and despite the problems that beset her, I particularly encouraged her to gather together and take another look at her work, which I published after her death at Parti Pris, Piouke, fille unique.
She was not only an outstanding multidisciplinary creator, with an orginality, an intensity and a luminosity filled with her native Gaspé Peninsula, she also invented the Gaspesian poetic language, and got involved in teaching children, which gave rise to the most exceptional children's art books in our literature, with young Micmacs: Une fleur debout dans un canot and La Naissance du Soleil.
She shone like the sun, sparkled like frazil ice, adorned with seaside agates all her creations, her conversations, her outpourings. On the Plateau Mont-Royal, she would glide like a seagull, spiralling around the Guillaume atelier on Saint-André Street, or Sister Marie-Anasthasie's atelier on Saint-Denis Street, then she would go for a drink and some writing in my library on Duluth Street. The neighbourhood was her village, her oasis. She was part of a revolution, a liberation.
A world where for the first time, women were getting involved in the arts, culture, cinema; in short, she was a dazzling pioneer. And everything she did had such beauty, such genuineness, that she was assured of a major place in Québec poetry, as well as in painting/engraving, documentary films, and art books originating here.
A woman who was a monument to culture! A marvellous Gaspesian! Her friendship still sweetens my life.
May all Gaspesian women recognize one of the most magnificent of them: a sparkling beacon giving and sharing joy: Françoise Bujold of Bonaventure.
Thank you for helping her to be known, loved, admired.
Gaétan Dostie, friend and publisher
Piouke fille unique, MEDIA-TECH and
Éditions Parti Pris, 1982
Françoise Bujold, Artist and Poet – A Biographical Sketch
Françoise Bujold was born in Bonaventure on the Gaspé Peninsula, March 6th, 1933. All her life, she only had eyes for her native Gaspé Peninsula: her writing is full of the most lively Gaspesian language, and her paintings and engravings are alive with every nuance of the earth and sea of her childhood.
She came to Montreal to finish her classical studies; in the early 1950's, she was the first woman, along with Maie-Anastasie, to go on with her studies at the Institut des Arts graphiques, where she became friends with Richard Lacroix, Janine Leroux, and soon afterwards, Pierre Guillaume and Kittie Bruneau. Her professor, Albert Dumouchel, made a deep impression on her. It was also then that she met Father Ambroise Lafortune and the poet Gilles Constantineau, with whom she put out her first poster-poems during 1953.
In 1955, Roland Giguère's publishing house, Erta, published her poems and engravings in Au Catalogue de solitudes; in 1958, she created the Éditions Goglin, publishing her poems and engravings in La Fille unique. In 1959, Suzanne Guité and Alberto Tommiwelcomed her to the Centre d'Art de Percé. Her exuberant period was beginning: she wrote tales that she had illustrated by children, first at Percé, then at the Maria Reserve with Micmac children. This was the time of La Piouke, a famous ''boîte à chansons'' which she hosted, and also the title of the song that Pauline Julien sang so fervently on her first record in 1959.
In 1964, she made a film with Jacques Godbout on Micmac children, Le monde va vous prendre pour des sauvages, a NFB film that won prestigious prizes. All through this period, she wrote many texts for Radio-Canada. Her graphic work reached its peak.
But health problems, lack of means, and loneliness were dragging her down. During 1978, with the collaboration of Gaétan Dostie, she set about collecting her written work.
In 1979, she went to Miguasha to draw fossils.
On January 18th, 1981, she died from cancer.
Her ashes are in Bonaventure.
Gaétan Dostie, friend and publisher
Piouke fille unique, MEDIA-TECH and
Éditions Parti Pris, 1982
Crédit photo : Rodrigue Gauthier. Collection Musée acadien du Québec à Bonaventure