DESCENDANT 160712

'Descendant 160712' is the first of many large oil portraits being undertaken for a new body of work which aims to explore, acknowledge, highlight and celebrate the people who have overcome hate, war, oppression and death. Those people of different ethnicities and cultures who choose to let LOVE prevail and rule their lives. The outcome being the new generations of children born of mixed ethnicity and diverse blood lines. To inter mix for many races and cultures is still a 'taboo' to marry or have children with someone not of your own culture, religion or race.
This painting is a portrait of my daughter Frankie Lee McDonald. Her genealogy can be traced to 6 unique cultures all of which have a history of war and hate towards each other at some time in history. They are Maori (Kai Tahu, Ngati Porou) English, Irish, Scottish and Italian. This multicultural hybridity is now either common place or is still a 'taboo' for many living descendants of our ancestors. The goal and aim of these works is to bring understanding and awareness to the world and show the beautiful children that are made out of love inspite of these cultural and ethnic divisions or taboos. The future of an ever changing and growing population of young multicultural children depends on new understanding and the love of all people no matter what their religion, ethnicity or culture . The 'realism' genre has been used to give a detailed impression of Frankie's spirit and unique facial features. A mix of all her genealogies and history.
About the work:

A personal fascinated with the evolution of identity, has lead me to create this series of portraits that examines how race, ethnicity, and heritage contextualize a person as an individual, and how they coexist within the framework of a family.

The aim is to explore the dynamic between individual and collective identities using the approach and discipline of portrait painting.

Over time, as humans migrate and change environments, the definition of identity has evolved to adjust to a broader definition of race and ethnicity.

Throughout the process of creating these portraits I wanted to portray the ever-changing definition of race and to examine the uniqueness of the individual within their families.

I have known some of the children I have painted through family and friends, and others I have had the privilege of painting through happenstance, something that has helped to form a narrative for the work.

The organic process of accumulating a group of individual people all unique in their own way has brought a sense of random sincerity as opposed to a fixed image or expectation that could occur if people were specifically researched and then chosen to be a part of the project. The accident of inclusion allows for the outcome or end product to be more of a surprise and that excites me.

Separating the individuals within each portrait, or grouping two people together as opposed to a whole family group also makes it easier for the viewer to compare and contrast each portrait. Although I ultimately chose which photos I would use to create a portrait with, there is still a large element of spontaneity in the images, seen through subtle colours, positions or expressions of the participants.

Apart from wondering what the future holds for my own children as multicultural people, one of the other reasons I began this work was a curiosity about exactly what “mixed ethnicity” currently represents, noting that as countries continue to modernise, how the mix of new cultures will blend with longstanding traditions. While there are people who fear cultural blending, I believe the idea of a global identity and our definition of self, culture and race is rooted in life experiences, education and personal choices.

But the bigger question is how will cultures and people maintain their individuality?

What will be those cultural differences aside from language, arts and food that will make a culture unique? There is so much more we can learn from each other, especially from our differences.
Gregori Chiaroni TM 2015