Aesthetic Expressions of Queer Kinship in Children’s Drawings

Abstract

This article describes and discusses a transdisciplinary research project that archives children’s drawings of their lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer + (LGBTQ+) family structures. Children with LGBTQ+ parents from Ontario, Canada, were interviewed and asked to draw a portrait of their family. The drawings and related interviews have provided empirical data with which to generate theory about their subjective realities. Analysis rests in two locations: the act of a child drawing and the adult’s collective witnessing of the drawings. In asking what new forms of kinship can be symbolically elaborated in their drawings, we have worked with the children to cultivate representations that re-figure notions of family so that a multiplicity of attachments and forms of cohabitation are better understood. Our analysis employs affect theory, psychoanalysis, and arts-based research methods, with emphasis on the socio-political significance of aesthetic expression.