Marie-Josée Roy

That she was born in the same city as the Forges du Saint-Maurice—the first industrial site entirely devoted to metal smelting and shaping, established in 1730 in Trois-Rivières—is a coincidence… unless it is what one might call destiny. When speaking of Marie-Josée Roy, this seems entirely plausible. Her first encounter with metal was electrifying. A love at first sight that continues to resonate through time, through her whole body, reaching the furthest corners of the mind.

“In my printmaking classes at university, I was fascinated by the metal plate, not by the result on the paper.”

Marie-Josée Roy was born in Trois-Rivières in 1968. Since childhood, an intense need to find her place has driven her toward action. This urge manifested in adolescence as a necessity to carve out her own space. Naturally, this search led her to artistic creation. Urgency did the rest. Head in the clouds, feet planted firmly on the ground, her quest for meaning passes through the body, through feeling—through the life she perceives and shares. For Marie-Josée Roy, life only makes sense in exchange, in interaction. This fuels her desire. This burning fire reveals to her a world that is different, made otherwise. From this encounter arises an unrestricted, free, and untethered way of thinking—guided only by the wind, fire, and sweat. These forces lead her toward the beauty of the body embracing infinity. Opposites unite. From fury emerges peace. From fire, joy is liberated. Questions remain, yet answers arise.

To do, to act, to accomplish—all converge in the moment. Over the thirty-plus years since that initial shock, thousands of works have taken form. Dozens of exhibitions and events have brought her into contact with people touched by the undulating silence hovering over the metal. People—us, them, those who, like her, search for meaning in this struggle, in this peace. For the better, and for the living.