She already had a day job in art, but it wasn't her passion — so she made cardboard her muse

Montreal's Laurence Vallières put in her work as a full-time ceramic artist, but the low pay and benefits just didn't seem worth it. On top of that, she didn't want to spend the rest of her life on other people's art — she wanted to work on her own art. So, she came up with a practical and financially manageable solution: cardboard.

"There were limits to what I could do, so I started working in cardboard," she says in the above video. "It was cheap, accessible and I could make large-scale work. I was a hippie and I wanted to do art. So that was it — and that's perfect."

Even after Vallières began pursuing her own work, she waited for the right moment to attempt it full-time. 

"It's important to not get ahead of yourself," she says. "You can quit when you are ready...When the world is ready to have you full-time making what you make...I think I did everything at the right time. We all have to take a risk at some point. I'm passionate about it and I think artists should just do what feels right."

This film was made by PIQUE, who are sharing their visions of Montreal artists through CBC Arts.