Over one hundred years ago Jean Pederson’s grandparents began homesteading on the prairies of Western Canada. These people, along with countless neighbours, broke the land, lived through droughts, insect infestations and the depression in order to build a better life for their children.

The land was their lifeblood and connected them to their food, income, friends and neighbours.The land sustained them for better or for worse. The old homesteads have all too often become memories of an earlier time.

Pederson collected various parts of her family’s farms, old receipts, and photographs (both historical and contemporary) in an attempt to tell the story of the ever-changing landscape and social fabric of the prairies. This artistic journey took her outside of her traditional practice of portraiture, supplementing it with mixed media assemblages, and installations.

This grouping of work pays tribute to all of those pioneers who built the social and economic foundations for the Canadian Prairies. 

 "Farm Fragments" chronicles an inter-generational story through realism, impressionism and abstract art, capturing one family’s journey over 100 years in Canada.