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Yorkminster Park Gallery

Michael J.B. Black

Garden Stories

Artist's Statement

Informed by a late Modern interpretation of abstraction, my current practice typically moves between painterly and post-painterly interpretations of cultural history and biomorphic forms. The age and patina of old walls, scraps of manuscripts, natural forms, etc. provide sources for the textures and compositions I use in my work. Whatever the source, I attempt to balance the pre-planned with the immediacy of the painting process itself, so that the images created are able to convey universal themes as well as to allow for variations in interpretation.

I have been thinking a lot about gardens. Over the past few summers, for example, the amount of warmth and rain where I live contributed to fine gardening conditions, and everything has grown in profusion. But conditions were localized - elsewhere, climate change brought about record-breaking heat, wildfires, flooding and generalized catastrophic variations in the season. So even as I observed the bursts of colour and form in our own little border, they felt somehow tenuous and unstable, like a fine but undeserved gift that was awkwardly received. In general, gardens are redolent with symbolism in many traditions. As the nexus for creation stories or as a focus for earthly representations of a heavenly paradise, the rich associations connected with garden imagery reach across time and cultural specificity.

But there are ghosts in our gardens, too, in the way that gardens echo the history of humanity in the world. The cultivation of gardens often implies the desire to subdue and control.

Despite everything, there is hope in gardens. I hope that these pictures embody for others some of that hope and promise.

@michaeljbblack
www.michaeljbblack.com

Gallery Hours:
Sunday: 10 am - 11 am and 12:15 pm - 1:00 pm
Saturday: Noon - 3 pm
Also available by appointment with the artist info@michaeljbblack.com
or by calling the church office at 416-922-1167