Opening Reception: Sunday, Sep 24, 1pm

In 2008, at 32, I experienced psychosis, and I have spent subsequent years clawing my way out of that difficult, consuming, and confusing period.

This exhibition is about building strength, resilience, and courage through kindness towards yourself and others. I am interested in asking, how does one cope with the parts of self one doesn’t want to face? How can one deal more productively with the emotions schizophrenia conjures? 

My approach as an artist is through sculpture and installation. I use materials most immediately accessible to me by my proximity to a hardware store, and fabrication processes made possible through artistic peer and neighbourhood networks.

Michael Nathaniel Green in his studio, Havelock, Ontario.

Schizophrenia is a major life derailment. It is an extreme state of mind, and most certainly, a call to courage for those who have experienced it. And, in my mind, it is a spiritual crisis.

This crisis comes with an incredibly powerful victim-judge dynamic. Intense paranoia can make the outside world - everything outside of self - appear as if it is out to get you. Me, me, me, always me, the radio and the TV are all talking about me. Personal importance is a part of an unhealthy ego in Schizophrenia, and the subsequent reaction to defend and protect oneself only reinforces that ego. It is an emotionally poisonous dynamic.

I have discovered that showing kindness to myself is an antidote. I have developed a desire to look truthfully and honestly at my fears and darkness. In facing those aspects of myself with kindness, I find, “we discover that the world is workable.” Jack Kornfeild. In Buddhism, when extremes of good and bad, victim and judge are called into question, a “middle way” presents itself.

Come Closer is a negotiation of dark and light, fear and play, and a reconciliation of elements in opposition.

Bio

Michael Nathaniel Green holds a diploma of fine arts from Georgian College in Barrie, Ontario, a Bachelor of Fine Art - BFA from the University of Lethbridge in Alberta, and a Master of Fine Art - MFA in Sculpture from Ohio State University, Columbus, OH. He has exhibited at Drey Gallery, Toronto and its sister gallery, Berlin, Germany, and Evans Contemporary and Coeur Nouveau, in Peterborough, ON.

Michael has schizophrenia and experienced his first psychosis in 2008 at the age of 32. He spent 10 years navigating mental health challenges and recovery, and not making art. Upon moving to Peterborough in 2014, he resumed the pursuit of an art practice and participation in art community engagement.

Michael keeps an artistic spark alive by capturing the beauty in the everyday gestures and moments of life around him through drawing and photography. Michael’s favorite quote by Elliott Erwitt states, “all the technique in the world doesn't compensate for the inability to notice.” Digital photography and drawing are inexpensive ways for ideas to germinate and grow, and are, essentially, the origin of all Michael's sculptural work.

“Learning to rest in the middle way requires trust in life itself. It is like learning to swim. I remember first taking swimming lessons when I was seven years old. I was a skinny, shivering boy flailing around, trying to stay afloat in a cold pool. But one morning there came a magical moment lying on my back when I was held by the teacher and then released. I realized that the water would hold me, that I could float. I began to trust. Trusting in the middle way, there is an ease and grace, a cellular knowing that we too can float in the ever-changing ocean of life that has always held us” - Jack Kornfield