Raymond Bellemare looks back on his poster

Interview conducted on December 8, 2025.

[Raymond Bellemare is seated near some shelves in a light-filled archives centre. A poster appears to his left. It is a photograph of twelve colourful buttons pinned to the pocket of a jean jacket. A harmonica peeks out of the pocket and a fresh daisy sits in the buttonhole of the flap. Across the top of the poster is printed “Montréal 1976” and the logo of the Montreal Olympic Games.] Raymond Bellemare: A comment was made about one of the buttons, the one with a cannabis leaf. But we just left it. We didn't have to change the image. I had hired a sociologist to find out what young people in the 1970s were thinking about. She brought me suggestions. This image illustrates the concerns of youth, like love, spirituality, friendship, unisex, peace, cannabis, the prohibition of the no symbol, ecology, inner harmony, and travel. But how was I to incorporate all these symbols into this type of poster? I thought that buttons would be the ideal way to do so. It just happened naturally. I just kept this part of the jacket. I cut it out and mounted it on a piece of plywood to work with it. [A photograph shows the left side of the jacket, attached to plywood with green tacks. The harmonica is still in the pocket covered with buttons. There is a brown stain above the partially closed flap.] There’s a harmonica in a pocket, there’s a flower. It was sent to a photographer, and, voilà. [The McCord Stewart Museum logo appears in white on a black background. Copyright: McCord Stewart Museum, 2026, appears in the lower right corner of the screen.]