Holly Aubichon

Nelda, Sandy, Churchy, Missy, Babs, Wege, Me, 2021

Oil paint on canvas, 48 x 60 inches

Art is healing. Aggressive assimilation and its aftermaths have had a devastating effect on my family. Members are dispersed and deceased. My paintings symbolically recovers and restores them to my circle. Before painting, I research these family members by any means possible - talking with relations and consulting online archives to reassemble memories of my family and locate parts of my Métis and Cree histories. Through research and painting, I process memories, reconnect familial relations and navigate my place within those renewed connections. I am devoted to art-making as a way to document and preserve my paternal lineage while placing myself as the leading matriarch within these painted narratives to connect to who my matriarch was. The painting shows an intimate urban interior. I want to show how Indigenous people do their best to continue our traditional ways while adapting to contemporary reality. The paintings are representational but include subtle shifts in perspective and are dimly lit to suggest memory recall, emotional stress, spiritual presence, ceremony, tenderness, and the weight of intergenerational trauma