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Item Name: Photograph
Title: Parenting Revisited: portrait at 5 and 15 years
Maker: Leesa Streifler
Year: 2008
Country: Canadian
Materials: c-print
Measurements: overall: 38.1 cm x 58.3 cm
ID Number: PC2008.8
Legal Status: PERMANENT COLLECTION


Extended Label Info: In becoming a parent, artist Leesa Streifler found herself reflecting on her own childhood. Like many who grew up in Canada during the 1960s, Streifler experienced considerable social pressure to conform to a rigid behavioural ideal, to be “a good girl”. In this mixed-media image, she uses copies of her childhood portrait at age 5, and her school yearbook portrait at age 15, to reflect on her memories of growing up, and to record her feelings and thoughts about her relationship with her parents. Her words express feelings of anger, regret, and sadness over unintentional, yet identity transforming messages that she experienced as a child. Leesa Streifler (1957- ) was born in Winnipeg. She earned a BFA Honours from the University of Manitoba (1980). Moving to New York City, Streifler earned her MFA from Hunter College, at NYU (1983). In 1986, Streifler returned to Canada to work as a Professor of drawing and painting at the University of Regina in Visual Arts. Streifler’s research focused on contemporary explorations in painting, drawing, text, and photography. A strong feminist, her work investigates the impact of social and cultural beliefs and practices on women’s identity. Her subject matter is the body in all its stages: the pregnant body, the aging body, the domesticated body, the irregular body, and the body in costume. She has also created work on interspecies communication, familial relationships, and aging. Retiring in 2019, Streifler returned to her studio practice in Winnipeg. Streifler’s artwork has exhibited internationally and is included in major public collections including the Canada Council Art Bank and the National Gallery of Canada.