Family lineage. Sometimes it gets broken for whatever reason—if your offspring are all girls you might lose name lineage; if your offspring only adopts kids you might lose blood lineage; if your offspring has no kids you lose it altogether. I get that. My experience is different—my family’s lineage is gone because of a somewhat odd, relatively newfangled religion in which my family placed incredulous and excessive credence and importance.
Ironically, the religion taught us family was the most important thing—even over the church. Then came the church, then work. We were told ‘families were forever.’ Barely into my teen years I learned how conditional that was. Questions? No. Individuality? Barely tolerated. Sexuality? Keep it in the “missionary” position. There were in fact so many qualifications. And my parents towed the line, flawlessly. I had to help break the line. I didn’t do it myself; siblings and—to a greater extent—parents helped. But it was clearly broken at my generation.
In “Broken Line” I contemplate issues of trust, unconditional love and acceptance. Starting with my evolving visual language, which incorporates landscapes and the environment I see, and then sprinkling in bits and pieces of church songs, beliefs and iconography, and family stories, special places and memories, I attempt to distill and understand how and why the line was broken.
–Jared Rue
