Pioneer Women: Between a Rock and a Hard Place

The painting Pioneer Women: Between a Rock and a Hard Place, was conceived as a tribute to our grandmothers and great-grandmothers. Many of these women came to Canada with their husbands, expecting one hundred and sixty acres of land and a new and better life. They packed up their linen and china and carried them over to this new land; only to find out they were living in a dirt house with a dirt floor. Many times the men were away for long periods of time and the women found that besides all of the work that they had to do to survive, they were incredibly lonely.

Here I was living in a time when there was all the technology anyone could need: telephone, mail, e-mail, television...and still I was lonely.

The border of this painting is made using a tablecloth that belonged to my grandmother. On the tablecloth are prairie lilies and butterflies in gold and silver on obituaries. One cannot go through an experience like our grandmothers without being transformed. There were so many deaths that occurred, often women in childbirth due to their isolation. The life was hard and even dangerous but leaving was not an easy option either. They were really stuck between a rock and a hard place.