A hint of old Europe on the Esplanade
Kat Coric was born in Croatia. She came to Quebec with her parents when she was 2 years old. A multi-disciplinary artist, who also stages art shows and represents up-and-coming painters, she’s now 44, but she loves the traditions from the “old” country — something that is evident in the style of her extraordinary (and huge) apartment.
A force of nature with striking eyes and a ready laugh, Coric lives with her American Akita dog in a second-floor space that was once two separate flats. The apartment has two balconies — one at the front and one at the back. Why did you need so much space?
I just had so much stuff (laughs)! I’d set up my office in a corner of the kitchen and I really didn’t have much room, so about seven years ago, when my neighbour moved out, I asked the landlord if I could knock the two apartments into one.
I offered to get an engineer to check that the supporting walls were OK and to sign a contract saying that if I ever moved, I’d restore the apartment to its original condition. He agreed — I get along well with him because I’ve been here since 1995 — but I don’t think I’ll ever move. I’ve got too much heavy furniture!
I transformed the kitchen of the other apartment into a studio — to paint and to show art — and now I have a guest room, a guest bathroom, an office … Speaking of your furniture, most of it looks antique. Are they pieces you’ve collected?
I’ve got lots of antiques — big, heavy pieces. That’s why I don’t ever want to find another apartment.
(We sit down at the dining room table, which is made of pale grey Carrera marble and Kat points out some of the things that she picked up over the years — a silver soup ladle acquired for $2, a skull of the type used by medical students and a glass-fronted cabinet housing delicate porcelain cups and saucers.)
I love old, beautiful objects because they remind me of Europe. I’ve got an eye for bargains and have found some of my things at yard sales. Friends and relatives — I still have family in Dubrovnik — have also given me lots of things, like chandeliers and silver candlesticks. (She points out the hand-embroidered table cloth — one of many in the apartment — with its delicate needlework. Your decor also looks very European.
That was deliberate on my part. One of the reasons I fell for this apartment in the first place was because of its age and its style. The building is around a century old and I just loved the hardwood floors and the high ceilings.
I wanted to make a feature of the window frames and mouldings around the doors, so I decorated them with gilt paint. At first I thought I might strip them down, but when I chipped off a corner to see what was underneath, I discovered layers and layers of paint — maybe around 35 coats (laughs). I sourced some gold powder — actual gold powder — and blended it with an acrylic medium. It had to be mixed, if you can imagine, for four hours. The result was just what I wanted, though. The paint gives off a nice, mellow sheen.
(She walks me through the apartment, showing me her bedroom, which has an early 1900s wardrobe with bevelled mirrors along one wall and a stained glass panel hanging in front of the window. As we wander into what is now her studio, she points out giant canvases by such contemporary Canadian artists as Yvon Goulet, Corno, Zilon and Yunus Chkirate, propped against the wall.
Back in the living/dining room, she tells me the story behind a ship’s large brass compass that sits, in the middle of the floor, like some exotic sculpture.)
My father was a seagoing captain and I like nautical things. This came from an auction via my brother who didn’t have room to store it. It’s an interesting piece because it manufactured in the U.K. and designed by William Thomson, Lord Kelvin — the same man who invented units of measurement for temperature known as the Kelvin scale.