Certified FENG SHUI - Consultation Design Art

FRANÇAIS

HEAD, HEART & SOUL
acrylic on canvas, 5'X4'

Reproduced from
THE MONTREAL GAZETTE
Monday, August 1, 2005

Create a little feng shui
Designer and artist Marie-Claude Joron advises clients on how to use the ancient Chinese philosophy to improve their well-being and productivity

by: DONNA NEBENZAHL

CREDIT: JOHN KENNEY, THE GAZETTE

Realtor Marie Claire Lalancette (left) called on feng shui expert Marie-Claude Joron to create a home office where she could feel both soothed and energized.

A 4,000-year-old Chinese philosophy may seem a strange place to turn for workplace advice. About 10 years ago, feng shui (pronounced fung shway), an ancient Chinese system for balanced and harmonious spatial design, was just a blip on the horizon.

Two years later, people had begun talking about it, but few had any idea how it worked - even though Asian businessmen had been incorporating feng shui principles for centuries.

"You'd see things on TV about decoration, and it was so disrespectful," said Marie-Claude Joron, a Montreal feng shui designer and artist.

The philosophy, with its complex placement of objects, holds that as much as in the body, it matters what goes on around your body. Joron's task for these last years has been to advise clients at home or work on how to use feng shui to improve their well-being and productivity.

Since she began her feng shui consultations six years ago - she is certified by the Feng Shui Institute of America - Joron has "feng shui-ed" two clothing design companies on Chabanel St., medical supply offices, the buildings of a Quebec college, a telecommunications firm and multiple private businesses and executive offices.

One of her clients, realtor and property owner Marie Claire Lalancette, asked Joron to create a home office in her Outremont high-rise apartment.

With her fast-paced, challenging work, Lalancette knew she needed an environment where she could feel both soothed and energized.

She met Joron while working on a condo building project at 500 de la Montagne St.

"I wanted to make the space more relevant, so I called her up," Lalancette said. "I knew nothing about feng shui, but I was in charge of selling the building and I wanted a relevant atmosphere."

"She wanted to feel motivated, and she was dealing with owners, potential clients and salespeople," Joron said. "Plus, she had to show the place to its fullest advantage."

Later, Lalancette hired Joron to create a Zen garden in the small apartment building she owned in the Plateau.

Then, when Lalancette moved into the Outremont apartment, Joron was called on once again to design a home office. "I wanted a small place to work, where I could concentrate on the essentials," Lalancette said.

The goal, said Joron, who also practises in New York and Los Angeles, is to use her feng shui skills to elicit her client's creativity and personal relevance.

First, each client must pare down, not a difficult task for Lalancette, who likes to surround herself only with things she needs.

"People need what is relevant, what they love," she said.

To find out what matters to each client, Joron has them fill out an extensive questionnaire about their lives.

"Even when someone works for a company, I want to know their creative, cognitive and intellectual objectives," she said.

"A physical description of what they like is secondary," Joron said.

By answering these questions, her clients reveal who they are, and what they're trying to accomplish. Then, she adjusts the space they work in.

"Space affects your experience of life," she said. "And everything is achieved by the senses."

With a business degree from the Haute Etudes Commerciales and a fine arts background, Joron is uniquely qualified to interpret the workplace.

"Everything is a metaphor," she said. "Light, air, smells - these are the basic elements and all will communicate something."

Look at the choices with an office chair, for instance - high back or low, arms or not, colour and texture of material. Lalancette's chair, for instance, is red and easy to move. "It stands for energy," she said.

"A chair is so important," Joron said. "It's symbolic of the strength of your spine, it's essential. Yet how many people have temporary, broken chairs."

Once she has determined the needs of her client, then Joron begins to understand important, unseen elements, like the type of communication that takes place.

This, in turn, has an impact on the type of furniture that works best. In a hierarchical workplace, for instance, the top guy would be at the short end of a rectangular table; if you want to brainstorm, you would have a circular table; a group of equals would meet at a square table.

"For intimate meetings," she said, "it's best to speak into the right ear, which is more emotional. On the other hand, if your employee is emotional and you want to use reason, speak into the left ear."

Then, you've got to deal with the environment. She includes air, smells and lighting in her inventory of negativity, with lighting the key.

"Neon is so bad," she said. "The sound it makes, it's exhausting and drains energy."

The stress-laden office environment is a metaphor for an unfocused and overworked society, Joron said.

She advises her clients, right away, to get rid of stuff.

"People pile up stuff thinking it protects them," she said. "Truth is, everything on a desk should be relevant; it should stimulate, send a message.

"If it's messy, you're exhausted before you sit down," she said. With less stuff, less to wade through, decision-making and communication are easier.

In Lalancette's workplace, a bowl of goldfish on the right - the emotional side - computer on the left - the intellectual side. Candles and essential oils line the window ledge, the client's own paintings hang on the walls.

"Use art," Joron said. "Put up a painting of a mountain, if it grounds you. If you want change, put up a picture of that path. Send a message, make your space relevant and comfortable."

Reproduced from
THE MONTREAL GAZETTE
Saturday, July 7, 2001

Feng Shui principles
can apply to garden too

by: Stephanie Whittaker

In the past few years, North Americans have increasingly embraced the ancient Chinese practice of Feng Shui in their homes and commercial buildings. But few realize that Feng Shui principles can also be adapted to gardens. Feng Shui practitioner Marie-Claude Joron decided to marry Feng Shui and Horticultural principles in her garden last summer. The newly-built townhouse in Ile des Soeurs offered a blank canvas. "Using Feng Shui in a garden is about feeding your emotions," says Joron, who has made a career of helping people incorporate Feng Shui into their homes and offices but has also begun to use the practice in garden settings. "You determine what emotions need to be fed and create the garden accordingly.' Feng Shui, a 5,000-year-old science, is the practice of creating arrangements and orientations to improve the flow of energy (or chi) through buildings and the surrounding areas. Those who embrace Feng Shui believe the practice can bring prosperity and health. The five elements of Feng Shui - water, wood, fire, earth and metal - which would normally be represented in a Feng Shuied house, are also represented in Joron's garden. 'You present these elements either literally or metaphorically," she said. For example, a swath of bright orange "paprika" yarrow (achillea) represents fire. The sinuous lines that define the perennial borders are reminiscent of water. The focus of the garden is an egg-shaped fieldstone patio "It represents the heart of thisyard,' she said. 'And the egg is the symbol of life - of beginning.' Some of the stones in the patio were cut in the shape of a daisy, one of Joron's favourite flowers, and creeping thyme was planted between the stones to soften the lines. Many of the garden's elements are symbolic. "Ihe peony represents prosperity because it's a strong, hardy, bold flower," she said. "It's a good metaphor fro strength. Round shapes represent metal and vertical elements stimulate growth. The shapes of foliage are important, too. Pointy or triangular leaves represent fire because their outline is dynamic. "A bench on the front lawn is also symbolic because it will communicate welcome to people." Joron divided the garden into zones, each with a different function. "When you have at least three different defined zones, you can feed at least three different emotions," she said. "You can have a solitary zone for meditation or an area you consider a health garden, for instance. This is a contemporary translation of ancient Feng Shui principles and mustn't be confused with a Zen garden. You use the same principles of Feng Shui in a garden as you would in a home.' Joron says a Feng Shuied garden, like a home, is designed to further the goals and aspirations of its owners. Moreover, each zone in the garden, like each room in a Feng Shined house, serves a different purpose. A quiet area can be a haven for private contemplation while an open patio has a social function. Joron says someone in the process of launching a business may find stimulation in strong flower colours. A couple seeking time for themselves can create an area of the garden that draws them to sit together. Someone in need of downtime from a busy life can create a quiet corner. And, she says, materials should be natural, rather than synthetic. Wooden chairs are preferable to their plastic cousins. In addition to the egg-shaped patio, the lle des Soeurs garden boasts a granite meditation bench, salvaged from a demolished building in Old Montreal, which overlooks the St. Lawrence River. The shoreline is a habitat for ducks, herons, frogs, groundhogs and beavers.

Texture is also important, says Joron. Pebbled paths flow into a small grassed area. lavender is strategically planted for scent in a border that flanks the patio. "It's aromatic when you walk past it" she said. The overall scheme is also designed to prevent visitors from walking through the garden quickly. Sinuous paths encourage slow movement. "The relationship between the various zones is important,' says Joron. 'You know when you've left one zone and entered another because of what's underfoot. You experience the garden differently underfoot as you move from grass to fieldstone to river rocks." Joron was adamant that the garden should not be laid out in straight lines. 'Nature is not organized in perpendicular lines but we don't find it chaotic or messy. So we shouldn't impose straight lines on gardens because it'd keep us from experiencing the actual outdoors." And grass? 'It's meant to be looked at, not experienced. It's best to have grass in small doses. A large lawn will push you into the house faster because it doesn't stimulate the senses." Stimulating the senses and the psyche is, after all, the goal of a Feng Shui garden.

Reproduced from
THE MONTREAL GAZETTE
Saturday, March 17, 2001

Feng Shui offers
a way to maximize environment

by: Stephanie Whittaker

For Louis Marchand, it was love at first sight. When Marchand saw a 1957 split-level home in Cartierville fast fall, he knew he had to buy it. "I have always had a dream to live on the shores of Rivière des Prairies, the chartered accountant said. "My wife and I were living in the Town of Mount Royal. We had a cozy little house but I wasn't comfortable in it. When I saw the Cartierville house, it was good chemistry. It's on the river. It has 18,000 square feet of land and 4,000 square feet of living space. It's private, so it feels as if it's in the country." Marchand knew he would need an architect to orchestrate the renovations he had in mind for the place but he even surprised himself when he also engaged a Feng-shui consultant to bring the structure into alignment with the ancient principles of feng shui (pronounced fung shway). If the Chinese science of feng shui seems esoteric to the Western mind, that's because it is. Five-thousand years in the making feng shui "creates arrangements and orientations that, improve the energies of the surrounding space," writes Lillian Too in Creating Abundance with Feng Shui (Ballantine, 1999).

While feng shui was not being widely practiced in the West a few years ago, it is fast gaining acceptance in residential and commercial settings. Louis Marchand says he bought a book about feng shui a few years ago, after talking to family members about it. "But I figured it would take a lot of time to understand it," he said. Then, after reading about feng shui practitioner Marie-Claude Joron (www.mcjfengshuicom) in La Presse, he decided he wanted his house, currently being renovated, to be designed according to feng shui principles. Joron has been working with Marchand and his architects to create the kind of environment that will nurture her client's soul. "Feng shui is about how your environment will impact your well-being," Joron said. "By adjusting your environment to what you need, your ... health, emotions and aspirations have a greater potential of realizing themselves." One of feng shui's basic tenets hinges on the idea that energy flows in certain ways and when it flows properly in a space, it enhances the well-being of the people who live or work there. Environments can be set up to permit the harmonious flow of energy, called "chi." Joron, who has a commerce degree from L'École des Hautes Études Commerciales, began her career in marketing before studying fine arts at Concordia University and later feng shui at the Feng Shui Institute of America. She said an increasing number of Canadians are using feng shui to create homes that are harmonious and nurturing, although many have a simplistic view of what feng shui is. 'Sometimes people are in a hurry for results,' she said. "You can't have those quick-fix expectations of feng shui. It's not about moving objects into strategic places and sitting back and waiting for things to happen. It's about your whole environment and how it's arranged for you at a particular time in your life." Example? If you're in the process of setting up a business, it may be advantageous if your home looks dynamic. Some walls may be painted red to stimulate you, for instance. In another home, those red walls could be overlay stimulating and distressing for children or adults who have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. So any application of feng shui must address the current needs of the people who live in a space, says Joron. "The first thing I do is get to understand what people need in their environments." To that end, she interviews her clients and gives them a questionnaire, which helps her establish "what's dominant and important in their lives now. Once I understand what each person is living, I observe their spaces and take pictures. That way, we can establish the objectives of the feng shui." She then produces a list of recommendations that enables her clients to implement changes in their homes. Ideally, Joron said, "a home should be 'feng shui-ed' when it's at the conception stage." But house-hunters can keep feng shui principles in mind while shopping for a resale home. 'Ask yourself how you feel in a home," Joron said. "Why do I feel good or not good here?" Each house has a 'five-minute zone around it" that should also nurture a homeowner. "Five minutes before you get home, you're thinking of home," she said. "Does that surrounding area nurture you?" Joron suggests home-buyers question "what's important in your life and what you'd like to change. Everything around us in life is such a challenge, the home is one place that's best suited for our needs. If it's full of rooms that are full of stuff you don't need and that don't nurture you, you need to change that." She said she knows of one woman who has always wanted to be a photographer but doesn't have the space in her home for a studio or photographic equipment. "She also has a great dining room full of formal furnishings. But she never uses the dining room. She could use that room to nurture her photographic hobby instead. You need to make sure that every room fulfills the needs in your life. Joron has been working with architect Estelle Côté on Louis Marchand's home. One of her recommendations was that a slightly A-line window above the front door be squared off. "The window gives you a subtle feeling of being off-balance when you walk through that door. Imagine walking through that door every day," she said. 'I wouldn't normally suggest such a major change but since the renovations are under way, this is something that can be incorporated. My preoccupation is with the emotional wellbeing of the person who will be walking through that door." Côté said this is the first renovation she's tackled that incorporates feng shui, but added: "I find it very interesting." And she believes an increasing number of homeowners will want feng-shuied enviromnents. "There are so many choices to make when you build a home," she said. "I think there'll be more demand for this. People have less time to understand what they want and they need help making those decisions."

Reproduced from
LA PRESSE
Montreal, Saturday, November 11, 2000

Feng shui ou état d'âme

by: Anne Richer

PHOTOS ROBERT MAILLOUX, La Presse

En feng shui, ces formes oblongues ou arrondies n'offrent pas de résistance au regard. Ce patio conçu par Marie-Claude Joron reflète l'esprit taoïste.

La maison du bonheur:
le règne du bon sens

Mettre du feng shui dans sa vie, ce n'est pas si difficile. il suffit parfois de choses simples : un bouquet de tulipes jaunes dans un grand pot de faïence et le tour est joué. Cependant, si vous souhaitez aller plus loin dans la démarche, voici quelques règles à suivre.

Trouvez l'orientation de la porte d'entrée principale de votre maison. Elle est significative : au sud c'est la renommée ; au sud-est l'argent ; à l'est l'instruction et la carrière ; le nord-est les enfants ; le nord les relations ; le nord-ouest les amis ; l'ouest le plaisir; le sud-ouest la santé. Des thèmes qui peuvent être développés davantage évidemment.

Les couleurs ensuite. Elles servent à ajuster le ch'i (énergie) d'une maison ou d'un bureau. La bonne couleur peut améliorer beaucoup de choses dans sa vie.

D'autres remèdes: un objet brillant ou réfléchissant, boule de cristal, miroir, source de lumière. Clochettes les carillons invitent le ch'i positif et l'argent à entrer dans une maison-

Un peu de vie sous forme de plante, bonsaï, fleurs, bocal à poissons. Une plante peut servir à camoufler un angle trop vif. Un mobile, un tourniquet, un jet d'eau, favorisent la libre circulation de l'énergie.

L'orientation d'un divan, la forme d'un abat-jour, la présence d'une grande plante, la place de la tête du lit, quelle chaise choisir autour d'une table ronde au cours d'une réunion, même l'emplacement de la télévision, sont autant d'éléments à considérer. Les motifs sur les tissus, le métal, le bois, le recouvrement du plancher, rien n'est laissé au hasard et tout peut servir la cause du feng shui, un univers fascinant qui ne finit jamais de livrer ses secrets. Dans le but de rendre aux humains un peu plus de bonheur.

Les librairies et les bibliothèques municipales possèdent un choix de plus en plus grand de littérature à consulter sur le, sujet.

Rien n'est laissé au hasard dans un décor où la spécialiste en feng shui a jeté l'ancre. Le coffre qu'elle a conçu, avec la vague en applique, cache des trésors mais plus encore permet d'admirer assis, le paysage.

La maison est un nid, un sanctuaire. On doit traverser une porte, déposer le parapluie, accrocher le béret. Et c'est là que le bât blesse : si le regard n'a pas la liberté de se perdre au delà de l'angle d'un mur, il tombe. Mais s'il est sinueux par l'accident d'un objet agréable qui s'y trouve, on arbore déjà un sourire bouddhique.
Le feng shui est issu du taoïsme, c'est une science qui a vu le jour il y a au moins 3000 ans en Chine. On en fait tout un plat en Occident depuis peu. Par ignorance. Car en fait, le feng shui n'est pas compliqué. Les Chinois le pratiquent tous les jours. C'est un style de vie.
Marie-Claude Joron connait le flux et le reflux du fleuve qui l'entoure, elle connaît aussi le flux de l'énergie qui vient d'elle, va aux autres, jaillit sur les grandes fenêtres de son salon, circule librement autour de son lit. C'est une experte feng shui, reçue au programme de certification FENG SHUI (FSIA) au Feng Shui Institute of America, Mass, USA, l'an dernier.
Elle n'est pas gourou ni sorcière. Il n'y a pas si longtemps elle recevait un baccalauréat en administration des affaires. Elle recevait un autre baccalauréat en beaux-arts, l'année précédente. Elle a travaillé chez Cossette et chez Ford, animé des séminaires etc. Mais surtout elle a peint et exposé en Italie, aux États-Unis, etc. À l'Université Concordia, elle a découvert l'art oriental, la calligraphie, " la manière de peindre l'âme ".
Le feng shui est une démarche rationnelle et sôn--étude-lui-a-donné le-goût de partager son expérience. Chez des individus, dans des groupes. Elle ne perd pas de vue la réalité et ne donne pas prise à une rêverie absurde. " Même si la maison a de l'âge il y a toujours quelque chose que l'on peut y faire. " Il y a des remèdes tout simples proposés par le feng shui.
Marie-Claude Joron vit dans une maison neuve, ce qui constitue à son avis une plus grande difficulté. " Celle de lui donner une âme. " Orientée face au sud, il n'y a qu'à y voir couler le fleuve et le vent, se laisser porter par le mouvement perpétuel de cette nature généreuse pour comprendre comment la lumière participe au bonheur.

Dites-moi qui vous êtes
Plus important que tout : " Je ne fais jamais de recommandations sans entrer dans la vie des gens. " Elle va dans leur maison, certes, mais c'est leur vie qui l'intéresse, leur vie intime. Un questionnaire de six pages en pré-entrevue, lui en apprend davantage sur les aspirations profondes des clients qui songent apporter à leur maison les correctifs pro osés par le feng shui. il y a la psychologie, mais aussi la physiologie et même l'ergonomie dont elle tient compte.
" Yin et yang, mouvements dynamiques qui ne s'arrêtent pas ", explique-t-elle admirative. Le feng shui s'oriente vers la compréhension totale de ces deux énergies maîtresses. Car le flux de ces énergies influence absolument le comportement.
Le principe de base est la libre circulation de l'énergie. Marie-Claude Joron, debout dans une maison inconnue, franchit des obstacles invisibles que les habitants de la maison n'ont même pas remarqué. On vit souvent avec des corridors trop longs et tristes, des couleurs violentes, des angles, des meubles que l'on n'aime pas; on tourne le dos à la porte. On ne se sent pas bien mais on ne sait pas pourquoi.
" Le Feng shui est peut-être une mode, conclut Marie-Claude Joron. Mais si c'est une mode qui développe une conscience, tant mieux. L'évolution spirituelle peut prendre toutes sortes de chemins.