Cry Ararat!
2024 · Oil-based aerosol paint and ice on canvas · 40" x60"

(101.6 x 152.4 cm) 

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Cry Ararat! grew out of the ekphrastic process I developed in collaboration with the McGill Poetry Matters collective, where a poem is translated into abstract visual experience rather than literal illustration. The painting takes its title from Page’s poem and carries its mood through colour, form and surface. When I first read the poem, it felt fresh while holding an ancient message of hope and renewal.

Page’s poem turns to the story of the flood and the dove that carried a green twig across a world of water. It is less about the great event than the quiet things behind it: the leaves that make a tree through the day, and the small, living green that signals survival. That attention to gentle, enduring strength is what drew me in. [One or two sentences on why it connects to your life, family or sense of belonging.]

The painting vaguely pictures a tree or a bird. It holds their feeling in jeweled earth tones and flowing, organic forms that can read as a tree’s slow growth or a dove’s flight over water. The ice leaves crystalline textures across the surface, so the work seems to grow and move at once. I wanted it to hold fragility and renewal together, and to suggest the quiet resilience of nature and the long journey of life.

I made the painting deep in the woods near the American border, in Quebec’s Eastern Townships, on a mild autumn afternoon when the clouds filtered the light low and soft. As the ice melted slowly, the surface shifted in subtle ways through the day, and the result is a muted, intentional style. The process was slow and reflective, and the painting revealed itself gradually in the forest. I felt then that it was important, and I savoured it.

Cry Ararat! was created for Abstractions, my December 2024 exhibition with the University Club of Montreal. The show let me present the concept behind the ice paintings and their pairing with poems, which gives each piece a heartbeat.