Work in Process

Artist Josh Yates will share his creative practice, which is inspired by 19th-century whaling logbooks and the woodblock stamps used to record their day-to-day happenings.

Drop in for an informal conversation with Yates about his practice and research that connects to issues on climate change. This program is presented in conjunction with Take Care, an exhibition which explores themes of land stewardship and sustainability on local and global scales.

Josh Yates is a self-taught artist born in Queens, NY. His decades-long body of work includes plein air and studio landscape oil painting, non-representational art inspired by abstract expressionism, and investigations of American whaling history—the latter of which is inspired by his time living on Martha’s Vineyard and learning about the island’s rich maritime history.  Through reproducing the hand-carved stamps used as record-keeping tools by whalers, Yates hopes to bring to light the beauty of these functional marks while also contemplating lessons about the fragility of the planet and the treatment of its resources that whaling histories demonstrate.