“Monarchs”

The first thing one notices about “Monarchs 2” is just how colourful it is. The yellow, in particular, evokes the exuberance of life and spring and new beginnings. Once we recognize, however, that the image is of a swarm of Monarch butterflies, the theme of life takes on more complex meaning. In spite of ongoing threats, the butterflies continue to survive and to provide us with moments of delight with their beauty and delicacy.

The closer one comes to the work, the more it seems to break up, “giving way,” as the artist puts it, “to a painterly composition of colours, shapes and patterns reminiscent of abstract painting.”

To be appreciated, the work requires some physical interaction. It is one thing to contemplate it from a single fixed position and quite another to see it from various distances. At a certain point, the image distills into a host of colourful pixel-like forms made of thousands of small Lego tiles.

For me, the work evokes the way in which many small and apparently all but insignificant things can be brought together to achieve something of real value, like a university. That St. Michael’s has survived and flourished through its long and sometimes challenging history is due to countless individuals—faculty and staff, students and alumni. If we are to pass on to future generations the great and beautiful thing that our predecessors and we have created, it will only be because of the contribution, large and small, of everyone.