De Wildt, Kelcie

• Home:
  Regina, Saskatchewan
• Title:
  Dad
• Media:
  Charcoal on BFK paper / fusain sur papier BFK
• Dimensions:
  180 x 180 cm

This charcoal drawing is a portrait of my Dad. I created this work to explore our father-daughter relationship,and how our relationship has developed throughout time. Due to my Dad’s job as an RCMP officer, I have spent my childhood and youth moving around rural Saskatchewan. For this reason, I have never been able to associate the feeling of a “home” with a consistent community. Rather it is the familiar face of my father that represents home. For this reason, Dad is not just a portrait of my father, but it has become a self portrait. Drawing is a consistent and ever present process that I trust and depend upon. There is nothing uncertain about drawing. I treat it as a repetitious task of adding and subtracting layers in order to manipulate my materials to gain control and power. While depicting my father, this feeling of gaining power through manipulation has increased. Drawing is not just about being able to control my materials, but rather gaining a position of control and my first attempt at creating my own individual identity.

EDUCATION: