Meet Cath Laporte
at raplapla

"Buddies" is a collaborative toy series by kids shop raplapla and artist Cath Laporte that calls us all to play. Here's a chat with Cath.

Bonjour Cath!
How do kids see the world?
Like this.

Here’s a broad question: What do you make and do and what drives your creativity?

I never know how to answer to this question. What I make and do is quite different but it all comes back to the same message. I believe we are in a place right now in humanity where we need to change our paradigms and come back to basics. To who we are as humans. Learn to love and respect each other and ourselves, but really. The message that I share is that.

“I’m all about exploring, inspiring and redefining the world we live in and creating a future that is safe and healthy for all.”

The tools I use are different. From co-creating a conscious business in Amsterdam, to an immersive pop-up exhibition designed as the launch for Alex Nevsky’s latest album, to teaching and talks.

In your work there is always a message of positivity that makes people feel uplifted. Is giving this feeling your goal?

Yes. To see things differently we need to unlearn to relearn. And that’s what I want to share with my art. A different perspective on feelings, on love … There are other ways to see the world as opposed to how we’ve been used to. Part of it is also to be uplifting, inspiring, and to hold a strong vision of how a positive future can be possible.

Please draw a map of your mind.
Okay!

How did your collaboration with raplapla come together?

I’m really excited about it because I have a post-It at home with everything I see myself doing in the next year. Part of the list is to bring my characters to life. I was participating in a Puces Pop and this lady comes to me and asks if I do exchanges of service. I was like, “Hey, I don’t know, it depends on the person and the project…” She gives me her business card and I saw it was raplapla and immediately I was like, “Oh it’s you! Yes, I’ll do it!” I told her I have this character, Chien-Coeur, who wants to come to life. She was really excited. I sent all my characters to her and she said we need to do more than one. So we have a collection of three characters we call “Buddies”. They’re a reminder for people to play and come back to basics and back to their kid energy.

Please draw the three Buddies you’re making with raplapla and tell me a bit about the idea behind each.

Chien-Coeur came to life during a collaboration with musician Alex Nevsky and is inspired by his new album. The character represents how love is, basically. We tend to put love in a box. It needs to be like that and if you don’t do this like that then you don’t love me. Love is actually never ending. There is always love, it is infinite, and we can share it abundantly. It needs to be untamed and wild and free. We need to find new ways to share love and to be in love. Every time we talk about love, like all the love songs, it’s super dramatic. Everything related to love is like, sooo heavvvy, and it doesn’t need to be. I think we can love in a more aware way.

“You say, ‘I fall in love’. Instead why don’t we say, ‘I climb in love’ ?”

Onion Man is this little dude who is an onion. He reminds us how we have to notice the peels we have around us that are sort of like protection, ego, and all of these things that get us further from our core. He’s a little reminder to be in contact more and more with our core to see what’s really there. What unites us. To work from that spot.

In You I See Me is a reminder for us to truly listen to one another because I think now more than ever we say we listen but we don’t really listen. So listen for real and see in the other that we are actually the same. To have this human contact. And if we start really seeing eye-to-eye, we are going to judge less and love more and it will be easier. When you really see the humanity in the other, you wouldn’t act the way you’d be acting, if you are truly connected to the heart of the other.

Kids express themselves freely. They don’t overthink, they just act. Do you think that as we grow up, we grow afraid to get silly and play?
I don’t think we’re afraid…

Why mustn’t we forget to play?
Because…

What’s your best advice to other creatives?
Be open to receive ideas…

Please draw a playful logo for the Mile-End.
Here it is!

Very hairy! Very fun! How can we play more in our community?

Notice the little things and be present in the neighbourhood. I’ve noticed that sometimes my body disappears and I am just a head running around, it’s crazy. But then you are like — oh wait — I feel my feet on the sidewalk. I smell the bagel shop. I say “hi” . That person has a turban or cool hair, say “hi” . Just say “hi” ! Start noticing that we are a part of a bigger ecosystem. When you start noticing this I think you feel more compassion and more grateful for what you see around you. It’s also the way you look at things and the perception you decide to give it. That’s how we solve big problems. By looking at things from different angles.

Who are six local artists the world absolutely needs to know?
The six.

What are some of your favourite places around the neighbourhood?

A run on the bicycle path by the railway. A walk at sunset at le Champ des possibles. Le Butterblume for the yuuuum food. 160 St-Viateur for all the inspiring & creative people that work there. La Montréalaise, raplapla, and C&L Cycle Villeneuve for Montréal made goods.