Low Down Articles
Artist Profiles - Louis Rompré
Article 57 of 73
From the book Artists of the Gatineau Hill by Catherine Joyce. This article first appeared in the "Artist Profiles" column in the August 1, 2007 issue of the The Low Down to Hull and Back News.
Reprinted with permission. Search complete list of Low Down Articles.
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Living by the Flame
Louis Rompré is a candlemaker, carver, musician. inventor, world traveler and above all, a believer that life is art because it is forever changing. There must be some connection between growing up in an Armed Forces family and the artistic sensibility with its capacity to transform and adapt to change.
"Moving around a lot you learn early that change is the only constant. Change is art, for it is forever growing, morphing, returning and reworking itself through experience and new influences. Every time I turn my head, that is what I see - change. I would rather be poor and part of this process of re-invention than rich and stagnant. I love what I do - every season it is different - all of my work makes me happy."
Louis began making candles in 1977-78 when he lived in a commune in Cascades. "At first I just made them for myself because I love candles. I am an avid camper who has always been transfixed by fire, so I have these little fires burning all around me. I find them calming, mesmerizing, even therapeutic. The glow of candlelight on someone's face makes everyone beautiful."
Ever since, his candle-making has been in high demand with the busiest season October through Easter. In between Louis plays the flute, wind-synthesizers and percussion in various Wakefield bands - Windjammer, and more recently with Phil Jenkins's band, putting out the well-known CD, Cartoons
Fifteen years ago he invented Bio-blocks and partnered with Brad Robinson and Candian Mortgage and Housing Corporation funding to create state-of-the-art buildings in the area. And always there is the traveling across the country with a pack on his back. "You learn a lot on the road if you are willing to shut up, observe and listen - travelling has been my education." To this day he loves to go out in the canoe alone where the "wilderness is my ashram".
Through it all creating candles has been the constant. Fashioning them by hand is a pure ou process in which Louis dips the of wick repeatedly into vividly coloured wax, making "something out of nothing. I am never sick of making candles - every one is a potential light of pleasure".
For the last 18 years on the Studio Tour, Louis has delighted visitors to his studio where he has invented his own system of ropes and pullemounted thermometer controls and elements to heat his barrels of wax. "Kids come and dip a wick into a vat and they go away glowing. Sometimes I think if I had a picture of every kid's eyes at that moment, I would have a book. Candles are the little flames of enjoyment I offer to people."
For Louis, art is about fluidity - that ease that is in him to draw out one pure note on his flute or one pure flame from a candle. "Nothing is forever. You have to treasure every moment of light. I make new candles continually and everyone is different. There is something elemental about this place where I live - this river, and my music and my candles - that keeps me going. My life has been the life of a traveler. I let the current take me out, then bring me home. My ambition is just to continue doing what I am doing, forever. And to pass the magic on."