Visual artist inspired by children, nature, and Kanien‛kehaka ancestry

Visual artist inspired by children, nature, and Kanien‛kehaka ancestry

By Jennifer Shea

When artist Allison Lynn works on her craft, she often has company. Her in-home studio has a children’s art space and her three oldest (of four) children create alongside her. Art is a significant part of Allison’s life; not only in her own creative practice but also in her work as a Kindergarten teacher, where she fosters artistic expression and creativity in young learners at her community school.

In fact, it’s young people who provide much of Allison’s creative inspiration. “The wonder and the sense of discovery that the children have, and the creativity without boundaries. They’re not afraid to create and be judged. It’s so important to keep that creativity and sense of play, experimentation and discovery.”

Lynn is also creatively inspired by nature and her ancestry. “My father’s family comes from the Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory and my mother’s family comes from lineages in the County – Empire Loyalist farming families. I have deep roots in the area and those are really inspiring to me.”

Lynn learned to do printmaking in high school and continued to explore that creative outlet through her university courses at the Ontario College of Art and Design and York University’s Fine Arts Studio Program. When she started her family, it became more difficult to manage printmaking, given the space and materials required. She started incorporating printmaking on a smaller scale and layering in mixed media and textiles, then assembling smaller pieces into larger artworks.

Over a few months in 2023, Lynn created a One Dish, One Spoon wampum belt that is 20 feet wide and two-and-a-half feet high. It’s on display at the Macaulay Museum in Picton. A wampum belt is used to document Indigenous treaties and covenants. The Dish with One Spoon Wampum Belt Covenant of 1701 was made between the Anishinaabe and Haudenosaunee peoples in what is currently Ontario and beyond.

When Lynn’s house was being gutted, she noticed the lathe and plaster from the old walls that was being thrown away. She gathered it up and cut it into tiny pieces. Since these pieces reminded her of wampum beads, she planned this large-scale artwork with collage technique, adding pieces of old newspapers, textbooks, children’s books and other materials to decorate the lathe and plaster pieces. Assembled on such a large scale, it’s compelling.

Perusing her online catalogue, you’ll see a few artworks in colour but many in black and white. Lynn admits that she leans toward black and white. “I gravitate towards the black and white, but I’ve been working with dying textiles and fibers, again with that playfulness and experimentation to see what happens when I mix one thing with another; also using natural dyes and different mordants – soaking different types of fibers in iron oxide, copper, something like that. I’m playing with colour more.”

Lynn’s artwork has been generating positive feedback, including from older members of her Mohawk community. She’s also had positive responses from the educational community. “I’ve been working with the Algonquin and Lakeshore Catholic District School Board with some of their students and teachers from Indigenous courses (literature and art making) as well as their students who identify as Indigenous. They’ve been coming into the museum to see the work and I’ve been able to come in and talk about it.”

While Lynn enjoys sharing her Indigenous artwork with others, she also continues to learn about her Kanien‛kehaka culture and language. She is Chairperson of the Board of Directors at the Woodland Cultural Centre, which serves to preserve, promote and strengthen Indigenous languages, culture, art and history in the Great Lakes region. The Centre’s Indigenous art show will be celebrating its 50th anniversary soon and Lynn hopes to have her works on display for that event.

allisonlynn.ca

This article was previously published in the Spring 2025 Vol. 34 No. 1 issue of Umbrella.