Breaking Bread

This is a portrait of my mother and myself as a young child at a family picnic near Lake Ontario. This is the place we grew up as first generation Dutch Canadians. My mother and her large family immigrated to Canada after the war from the Netherlands when she was sixteen. They took everything they owned along with farm equipment, a house and other items as there was a limit set by the dutch government on how much money could move out of the country. Their survival in the new country depended on farming and labour - food was an anxious focal point - the food stamps replicated in the painting and my mother’s keen attention to feeding us point to her experience of scarcity. Their religious community also played an important role in their lives - the church was the centre of their social life. The title of the painting plays on their devotion to faith and survival.