THE RISE AND FALL OF D. LANGLOIS
This series of acrylic paintings tell the story of my Métis father’s elevation from an underprivileged socio-economic status through marriage into my mother’s educated and affluent WASP family. The series investigates his never-ending lust for material status, and the hustles and wheeling and dealings that were his downfall.
It is an examination of my father’s rise from a poor, uneducated, racialized Métis family in rural Alberta to a university-educated professional on Vancouver Island, and the struggle in breaking out of the socio-economic hierarchy, and switching class. The series explores how, despite my father’s development, he never fully fit in with educated and aristocratic society, yet did not feel comfortable returning to what he referred to as “the great unwashed” — his own working-class family, community and impoverished past.