Acrylic and oil on canvas 72 x 48 in. 182.9 x 121.9 cm
This piece is a portrait of the artists' grand-mother, Précieuse. Though untraditional, in its landscape format it retraces her journey through the eyes of her daughters. Are you free my daughters? is an homage to life and migration and is a direct citation from the Haitian-American author Edwidge Danticat in Breath, Eyes and Memory (1998). These are depictions of Précieuse's 3 daughters first year here in Canada. Précieuse once confessed to her grand-daughter that she did not have dreams for herself or for the future when she was young. She said that dreams were only for those that had an education to understand what they entailed. Yet, she did have a dream. Bringing all 7 of her children here to provide possibilities, which she did not have. After her arrival here in the 1970s, all she did was work towards what seemed like an unthinkable future. Nevertheless, she managed to make the unthinkable happen.
