Like much of my work, Portrait of the Artist with his Family is a project that exists in multiple forms, in this case as a black-and-white pencil drawing and as a video projection on sculpture. I use the same image in both to experiment with the visual expression of a single concept in two different media.


     Video of my family members having their photo taken is projected with a life-size sculpture of myself intervenes in the composition. The interferance of the three-dimensional form with the flat video and the contrast between the static sculpture and moving images creates a tension between the two artistic disciplines. This interdisciplinary relationship reinforces the feelings of separation between myelf and my family, emphasizing a sense that this portrait is incomplete.


     This project is about time. I started it because I wanted to go back to my roots as an artist. I was trained in drawing. Photorealism in black and white. Pencil on paper. The most simplistic of materials. I wanted to find a project best suited for the technical and temporal demands of this artistic discipline, a project where the element of time was key in the overall concept.

     This project is about my relationship with my family. I started the drawing during a particular period when I felt lonely and isolated. My intent was to engage in the activity of drawing my family to somehow make up for their absence. For countless hours, I faced this image, this frozen moment. The long process of creating this drawing serves to symbolizes the time and energy people give to family. The attention to detail is a metaphor for the fragility and sensitivity of these relationships.

     Despite the many hours put into the drawing, it remains unfinished. The whiteness of the paper sits heavily where my face should be. By leaving myself incomplete, I express feelings of alienation due to geographic distance but also a disconnection that can be felt when we are together. This drawing is a representation of work that still needs to be done.

     I started this drawing in early 2005, four years before writing this. Since then, I feel I have made peace with a lot of things, mainly within myself. I hope one day to finish the drawing and give it to my parents, who have yet to see it.

— Owen Eric Wood
Montreal, July 2009