Better than the other way around

“Night Remembering Day’’ (acrylic on canvas), by Cynthia Roberts, in her show “Mango Season,’’ at Bromfield Gallery, Boston, June 3-28.

She says:

“In these works, I’m exploring the act of witnessing through emergence and submergence of imagery in color-rich abstract environments. Careful botanical line drawings appear and then step back from the viewer, as more literal depictions step forward. Each painting is an ecosystem where the process of observation creates an interior life; plants appear to remember themselves, their history, their previous state perhaps, and the painter becomes transcriptionist of that immersive world, rather than arbiter.

“Mango season begins in March and runs through June in Costa Rica, where I spend chunks of time each year. I was happily surprised to see the connection to the season. People stop their cars, motorbikes, and walks to collect ripe mangos from a roadside tree. Toucans, parrots, and other birds are drawn to the trees with ripening mangoes to fill themselves. There is an innate magnetism; if you have a mango tree near you, it will be known. The period arcs the transition from dry to rainy season. The mangoes ripen and sweeten in the hot dry air.’’