FlintFlowers

As artists, we respond to the world as we find it. In that sense, all art, even abstraction, is political. Art is in the world and of the world and no thing currently in our world will have the level of impact that we already see in climate change.  

There is so little that individuals can do about it - 57 companies worldwide are responsible for 80% of global CO2 emissions - but we all have our own response and the thing that has pulled me is studying, identifying and capturing in paint the wonder and the heroism of the fragile flower specimens that grow on one 15 acre island located in a wilderness park in Georgian Bay, an area of the Great Lakes in Canada. I want to honour them while they are still here. 

It’s a cold place, and for 6 months - it has been 6 months since the last ice age - no flowers grow at all. The roots and seeds rest under the snow, and hard frosts are still common until late May, but the week the ice on the bay melts, and snow can still be on the ground in spots, the first hardy blooms appear. The fall flowers come out in August and no new ones will bloom after early September. It’s a short season and the glaciated pre-Cambrian shield granite holds little soil; it’s not a place people associate with orchids and honeysuckle.  

Originally, I thought I would find a few different flowers. To date I have a hundred and six. When I find them, I paint their portraits - serious portraits like were commonly done of wealthy people who were once considered important.  

The paintings all work together as one piece, and the series is ongoing. To date I have about 70 completed but the finish line keeps edging away from me as I find new species and varieties. 

Some sample photos follow, though they don’t begin to convey the sense of wonder that I am trying to build. The paintings - from 3”x2” to 30”x30” - all hang together in one liminal space, a hall of overwhelming portraiture, and they nod to each other. They are a tribute to the delicacy and tenacity of the apparently fragile, not always beautiful flowers that bloom every year in this harsh place. Most are wild, some are introduced, all thrive in the wilderness park where the island is located.  

Who knows for how long.