Three years ago Me Marie Madelin created Allen Madelin Lawyers and is leading it ever since. She has always been an approachable person who is truly implicated in Montreal local life. Now she just wanted to add a more personal and artistic touch to our office at 4621 Boulevard Saint-Laurent.
Claude is a renowned Quebecois artist who was painting lots of windows on Boulevard Saint-Laurent for a quarter of a century already. Before, Claude was working at a leather manufacturing factory and had more than 50 other jobs. Finally, his punk-rock soul took over, so he said (and this is a quote): “F…ck off!” to “capitalist” work and lived his art at its fullest ever since. Fan of the Ramones, J.J. Cale and “festive, genuine and healthy” punk-rock music, Claude talks about it with passion.
Another passion of his is to make gifts to his friends. He likes to take some time to drink a beer with people around, to discuss things and or go to a bar and sing at night.
Many Saint-Laurent shops display refined and meticulous paintings belonging to Claude’s brush. Whether it is calligraphic text or a presentation, his works are always magnificent.
All the 17 years through, while living in the Plateau area of Montreal, Me Marie Madelin is fascinated by the window painting work of Claude, like for example the pub Le Terminal. And of course, she chose to contact him to paint and re-design her office window. The idea was to bring up a figure of Lady Justice to resonate with the vision Me Madelin contemplated for her own firm. She already brought up the image of the Lady Justice to the public once: in 2018 during the Montreal Mural Festival.
Claude immediately supported the idea: “Okay, I think it could be done yes.” And that was the beginning of the project.
At Allen Madelin, we believe that justice should not only be an abstract notion, but that it should appear daily in specific acts. Lady Justice is magnificent, she is not only there to condemn, she also protects everyone regardless of their ethnic, social, cultural, religious background or sexual orientation. And Justice needs human beings to make her heard and to move herself forward.
Lady Justice goes against malicious behaviour regardless of its author. Being blind in this world, she knows her path to be often blocked, but she remains determined. At Allen Madelin, we do our best to help her, to champion her and to stand tall at her side in order to defend all the rights.
Passing by the Allen Madelin window, people on the street are pleased to see Claude making elegant strokes with his brush. One person who seemed to be in a hurry, stopped abruptly and exclaimed looking at Claude: « He’s a f…cking legend man! » He looked close just to be sure that it was really Claude before him, painting the window. He entered and asked Claude’s permission to take a picture of him. Claude kindly agreed. The picture was taken and the Claude’s fan left still astonished and amazed.
Claude is a living legend of Montreal, yet he is so humble and discreet, and people cannot believe it when they actually see him.
Like Claude, do not hesitate to enter our door. We invite you to come and admire Claude’s work in the window of our firm at 4621 Boulevard Saint-Laurent.
We thank you greatly, Claude, for accepting to paint our window, and especially for the enriching and madly rock’n roll conversations you had with us for these few days.
