selected drawings (2011-2013)

All 14 drawings are of pastel, Conté, charcoal, graphite on Maidstone paper, 63.5 x 96.5 cm.

In French, the words “mère” and “mer” not only sound the same, they are both feminine. The project De mère en mer (From Mother to Sea) is due to a turn of events that began in 2010 with the acquisition of a plastic mesh mask, a crude cast of my mother’s head and shoulders, that was used for her radiation treatments. A few days later, I stayed in a house perched on the north shore of the St. Lawrence River. The experience awakened my desire for the sea, distant lands and lost memories of French, Belgian, Acadian, Indigenous, Quebecois, Franco-Ontarian, and other female ancestors. I listened to early Acadian songs and read about Acadian life, and later went on cruise on the St. Lawrence River and Seaway.

Some of these drawings are found in the pages of the artist’s book De mère, de mer, and juxtaposed to the installation De mère en mer: Lost in Translation.