Young Local Artist Gains Popularity with Upcoming Art Show at Phog Lounge

By: Joelle Brassard

 

Windsor’s popular art and music venue Phog Lounge is hosting a new and upcoming artist who plans to make a big splash in Windsor’s art scene. 

Milos Main, more commonly known by his stage name of “Dissociation Dude” is a 23-year-old artist from Windsor who creates pieces in many different mediums such as digital art, painting, drawing, collages and more.  

Main began gaining a following through social media in 2020 and has been displaying his work online ever since. 

“I have kind of always been an artsy kid. I grew up drawing a lot but in my professional life, I just started posting on Instagram more and putting my art out there more. It was a way that I didn’t expect to gain traction from, but people really seemed to enjoy the work I was putting out and it just got a lot of good reception which encouraged me to keep going as a professional artist.” said Main. 

Main started gaining his following by posting raw and vulnerable art pieces surrounding the theme of mental health.  

“I put out a lot of work pertaining to mental illness symptoms rather than the stereotypical theme of ‘mental health matters’. I put out work that was devastating, upsetting and really talked about the issues that lots of people have but can’t seem to talk about.” said Main. “A lot of people really empathized with my work and flocked to it because it gave them a voice, which is exactly what I was aiming for. I got a following by being myself, being vulnerable and putting it all out there for others to see.”  

Main got in contact with the team at Phog Lounge and got himself booked into their Oct. slot.  

Phog Lounge is a live performance venue and bar located in downtown Windsor. 

“We turned 20 in January so for 20 years we’ve been saying yes to bizarre art shows, musicians, poets or really any kind of performer or people who like to host special events such as dance parties, DJs and more. We’ve been here quite a while now; I opened this place when I was 24 years old, and it’s never been the same thing on any given night,” said Tom Lucier, owner of Phog Lounge. 

Phog Lounge hosts weekly and monthly events that draw in crowds of all kinds. 

“It’s meant not only to keep things interesting for those coming in to buy drinks but also for me. I’ve just always wanted to live in a more interesting city so when I can influence that by booking something ‘weird’ than I do,” said Lucier. 

Profits from the shows go directly to the artist in support of the local arts, music and culture scene.  

“It’s not necessarily to the direct benefit of us, we just want to give people an opportunity to put their stuff up and sell it. We don’t take any money at all from sales so if you come in and you sell a piece, you’ll get 100 per cent of that money. In return we get décor for the month or two week slot that the artist booked. It keeps this place interesting for us with something new on the walls every month,” said Lucier. 

Phog Lounge has fostered a community of dedicated fans who attend shows of all kinds on a regular basis. 

“I have never met such open-minded, kind and accepting people. I feel like anyone could walk into Phog and feel included,” said Emily Hempel-Northcott, a dedicated attendee of various Phog shows. “The general consensus at Phog is that people are weird and different and that’s celebrated there, which I feel is so refreshing.”  

Main’s work will be displayed throughout the month of October until Nov. 5 with a show to celebrate its closing and opening, creatively called a “clopening” featuring live music by local bands Birds Witness and Strange Creatures. The exhibition is titled Poignant Lingering. 

Poignant Lingering is “an exhibition focusing on the idea of an emotional haunting, a lingering of trauma that forces one to feel incapacitated,” said Main. “The goal of the exhibit is not to push the idea of trauma as a bad thing to live with, but as something that creates barriers that need to be navigated and that people should be supported in navigating it.” 

Main describes how trauma impacts his art and how many people struggle with it, “Trauma is come common than people recognize, and personally I want to help people understand it as a thing others live with and not see it as only certain people can experience.”

The show will feature pieces of art done by Main in different mediums, as well as art, stickers and digital prints for sale. One of the pieces that will be featured is called Bitter and Fermented. 

“It is the main piece that will be up at my show at Phog. It sits as my favorite simply because of how much emotion it holds and how much of me it holds.” said Main. 

Those in the community can visit Main’s exhibit throughout the month of Oct until Nov. 5 at Phog Lounge and can celebrate the “clopening” show on Oct. 21 starting at 9 p.m.