Francine Potvin:
Entanglement of the Living

Art as dialogue, revealing the invisible ties uniting earth and spirit

By Andrew Burlone

Octobre 24, 2025

Francine Potvin, a visual artist from Farnham, is presenting her solo exhibition, Entanglements of the Living, at the Arts Sutton gallery from October 16 to November 16, 2025. This new body of two- and three-dimensional works explores the intricate ties of correspondence and interconnection between humans and nature.

Inspired by the ideas of Hildegard of Bingen, a founding figure of ecofeminism, Francine Potvin sees humans as an active part of the living world, engaged in ongoing dialogue with it. This ecological and spiritual vision underpins a deeply intuitive approach, where each piece becomes a vibrant reflection of the exchange between creation and natural matter.

Francine Potvin sees humanity as an active part of the living world, in ongoing dialogue with it.

Moved by an ecological call and informed by concepts from biology and ecology, the artist experiments with paper clay, organic material collage, collagraphy, and assemblage to create evocative images and amalgams reminiscent of oversized talismans. Her creative process is rooted in acts of gathering, gleaning, and contemplation that become poetic gestures.

Entanglements of the Living

As she experimented, Potvin discovered that coating the stems of grapes from a local vineyard or the petrified wood struck by so-called “witches’ broom” disease with paper clay yielded forms reminiscent of coral—making her, in her words, a “coral forger.” These creative discoveries reveal unexpected correspondences between the mineral and the vegetal realms, earth and sea, microcosm and macrocosm, always under a guiding principle of subtle, universal reciprocity.

This project, embedded in a reflection on the continuity and entanglement of living things, invites a shift of attention: to learn to see differently, to contemplate the visible as an echo of a sacred invisible. Potvin’s works thus become open gateways to a mysterious life, woven of interdependence and resonance. Her contemporary practice, rooted in deep ecology, ecofeminism, Buddhist philosophy, and yoga, celebrates the Anima Mundi—the soul of the world—in all its complexity.

‘The exhibition invites a reversal of attention: learning to see differently, to contemplate the visible as an echo of a sacred invisible.’

A passionate admirer of wild flora, herbalism, and gardening, she brings to her practice the sensitivity of an attentive gaze to detail and the breath of life. Since 1985, her works have been exhibited in Quebec and abroad, and are now found in the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec’s Art Loan Collection as well as in the collections of BAnQ, the National Bank, and Global Affairs Canada.

Francine Potvin in conference

As part of her solo exhibition Entanglements of the Living, artist Francine Potvin presents a retrospective of her work. She discusses how she explores paper clay, organic material collage for collagraphy, and cyanotype to create evocative two- and three-dimensional images.

Thursday, October 30, 2025, from 6:30 to 8:00 pm
Voluntary contribution

Galerie d’art contemporain Arts Sutton
7 Academy Street, Sutton, Quebec J0E 2K0
May 29 to June 29, 2025

Open Thursday to Sunday, from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Opening reception: Saturday, June 7, 2025, at 2 p.m.

info@artssutton.com • 450-538-256

Image: Courtesy of Arts Sutton

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