Archelas Poulin. Sculptor. Painter.Lac Megantic, Quebec. Active early to mid-20th century.
After a work accident in 1917, Poulin began to work with a carving knife. His talent was natural and enormous. He created two dozen dioramas depicting the life of Jesus and took them on the road to fairs around North America. He lost them to theft in 1926 and proceeded to make another even more compelling set of dioramas showing each month in the life of rural Quebec 100 years ago and these were automatons; they moved and danced. And he returned to life as an itinerant artist. These automaton/dioramas were intricate, complex and wonderfully colorful. The Museum of Civilization has a fair collection of his works.
The Ballroom Carving-Diorama/automaton is quite transcendent. I am including a link to the Can. Mus. Of History’s article on Archeas Poulin here:
http://www.historymuseum.ca/cmc/exhibitions/tresors/treasure/122eng.shtml
