Kate Hansen, an artist and mother from the Comox Valley, was inspired by the birth of her son to start a project on motherhood. The project is called the Madonna and Child Project and it鈥檚 a series of portraits of 14 different mothers.
Each portrait makes reference to the classic Madonna and Child theme- a mother holding an infant- but if you look more closely there鈥檚 a twist. These are ordinary mothers with ordinary babies. Some mothers wear watch bands, some wear glasses, some sport tattoos.
These mothers are all from different backgrounds, in different poses but all share a common love for their babies in arms. Each mother and infant is haloed with gold leaf in the classic tradition, but it鈥檚 a sharp contrast with the contemporary nature of the subjects.
Beside each portrait is a birth story written in the mother鈥檚 own words. These stories serve to describe the portrait in some cases. For example in the portrait Aleigh and Isaac the baby has medical tubing attached, which can be explained if you read his premature birth story.
Many of these models were acquainted with Hansen already, but many others were found over social media sources such as Facebook, blogging and Twitter. Many of these women never actually met Hansen in real life, but shared their stories and photographs over the internet.
Last year at about this time Hansen had several portraits removed after she posted them on Facebook. All the portraits in question depicted breastfeeding mothers, and as a result she gained media coverage from sources ranging from the Comox Valley Record to the Toronto Star and national CBC radio. Her issues with Facebook continued, including a brief loss of her account, but she persevered and continues to hold a Facebook account today.
You can read about some of these issues in a binder at the front of the gallery. She will also be giving an artist talk on the development of the Madonna and Child Project, and also the Facebook issues that gave it notoriety. The artist talk will be held June 18 at the Muir Gallery at 1 p.m. and the show runs until June 25.
