Family Portraits

by Jade Hoyer

17"x20" (Installation), Individual prints: 5"x7" ("Baby," "Mama," "Dada"); 10"x8" ("Baby, Papa, & Mama," "Nana & Papa") • Linoleum Relief Prints $$150

Traditionally, child rearing was considered to be the duty of the female.Like most things however, in today's reality such roles are more complex. Mounted in pastel cloth and displayed within standard picture frames, these graphic images at first glance evoke a cozy rendition of a traditional nuclear family. Instead however, they portray the ambiguities of a modern family (in this case the artist's own) in which an infant's grandparents, not his teenage mother, serve as his primary caregivers. These depictions raise questions about the interplay between defined gender roles and family roles and the applicability of those roles in increasingly less defined situations.