Kasie and Nikolai
Tiara and Eve Marie
Carla and Mackenzie
Dina and Sawyer
Aleigh and Isaac
Michelle and Sawyer
Stephanie and Kofi
Erin and Tori
Ailen and Jet Jazz
Krista and Colum
Kate and Erik
Gladys and Elizabeth
Krisztina and Finbar
Jessica and Miles
Caitlin and Nico
The Madonna and Child Project- Portraits and birth stories
After the birth of my son in 2007 I felt an incredible energy and drive to make art. Contrary to the popular belief that art making is one of the things that fall to the wayside after the birth of children, in my case I felt inspired and compelled by my experience of childbirth and motherhood. It was almost as though the creative act of making another human being awoke a creative drive in me. I also found that the time limitations involved in caring for an infant forced me to be more disciplined in my art making. I would eke out hours here and there when my son was sleeping to continue my portraits. After my daughter was born in 2008 I had determined to form a series of mother and child portraits and accompany them with birth stories written by each subject. I wished to express simultaneously the imperfection and fallibility of the mothers but capture an element of the divine in the mother/child bond. Each mother also shares a birth story, be it life changing, beautiful, or a harrowing experience, and these common stories serve to unify a very diverse group with a common theme- of love, of self sacrifice, and transcendence. I owe this inspiration to my children- for their beauty, for their challenges and for the unique bond of motherhood that I hope to capture here.
Each portrait is done in conte crayon and accented with a gold leaf halo. These were made with reference to portraits of the Virgin with child from the 15th century, as well as an early 20th century revival of the practice by such artists as William Adolphe Bouguereau. I outlined the circular shape then filled them in with the leaf in the first four portraits, then devised a way to make a pattern in the halo with number five. I was thinking of rose windows, and wracking my brain for a way to make such an even pattern by hand, with my limited math skills. I couldn't think of anything, and started cutting out snowflakes with my son instead. Then it occurred to me to cut an elaborate snow flake and use the radiating design for the halo! So I outlined the snowflake pattern on each halo, painted the gold leaf sizing on to the ground of the pattern, but not the holes. After I applied the leaf I waited for it to dry, then rubbed the un-sized leaf off to reveal the pattern.
A common theme throughout many of the birth stories was a sense of inadequacy. Many women felt they did not live up to their ideal of what a mother should be, what a birth should be. There was sometimes a sense of loneliness, as in the story of Gladys and Elizabeth, who came to Canada with her Canadian husband and gave birth far away from her native Kenya, in the dead of winter. Many of us, myself included, wished to have a natural birth, and had to settle for a c section birth instead. For some women it was elating, as they gave birth naturally after a previous c section, and proved to themselves that they were capable of giving birth. For everyone it was a rite of passage, a moment in our lives right before motherhood, when everything changes, even ones sense of self. I wanted to draw some parallels between our own ideals of what a mother should be, and the cultural ideal of motherhood, symbolized by the Virgin Mary. I wanted simultaneously to honour motherhood, in all the glory of it's imperfection.
Each portrait is done in conte crayon and accented with a gold leaf halo. These were made with reference to portraits of the Virgin with child from the 15th century, as well as an early 20th century revival of the practice by such artists as William Adolphe Bouguereau. I outlined the circular shape then filled them in with the leaf in the first four portraits, then devised a way to make a pattern in the halo with number five. I was thinking of rose windows, and wracking my brain for a way to make such an even pattern by hand, with my limited math skills. I couldn't think of anything, and started cutting out snowflakes with my son instead. Then it occurred to me to cut an elaborate snow flake and use the radiating design for the halo! So I outlined the snowflake pattern on each halo, painted the gold leaf sizing on to the ground of the pattern, but not the holes. After I applied the leaf I waited for it to dry, then rubbed the un-sized leaf off to reveal the pattern.
A common theme throughout many of the birth stories was a sense of inadequacy. Many women felt they did not live up to their ideal of what a mother should be, what a birth should be. There was sometimes a sense of loneliness, as in the story of Gladys and Elizabeth, who came to Canada with her Canadian husband and gave birth far away from her native Kenya, in the dead of winter. Many of us, myself included, wished to have a natural birth, and had to settle for a c section birth instead. For some women it was elating, as they gave birth naturally after a previous c section, and proved to themselves that they were capable of giving birth. For everyone it was a rite of passage, a moment in our lives right before motherhood, when everything changes, even ones sense of self. I wanted to draw some parallels between our own ideals of what a mother should be, and the cultural ideal of motherhood, symbolized by the Virgin Mary. I wanted simultaneously to honour motherhood, in all the glory of it's imperfection.
