Thomas Sinclair
February 23rd, 2023 | Sharing Circle
My name is Thomas Sinclair and I’m a Treaty 3 Anishinaabe. I’m an artist, and I have works displayed in several galleries around the world. Art to me is about healing, preserving our culture and sharing our teachings. I come from a long line of trappers, I still get out on the land to hunt and fish, and my art is a way to honor this way of life.
For me, painting has always been a way for me to discover things about myself and search for peace. I have faced mental health challenges for much of my life, and the work I do grounds me and connects me to cultural and history. The Woodland Art I create was taught to me by several mentors, most significantly Isadore Wadow. My father was an addiction counsellor, and I was fortunate to meet several artists who were his clients. They taught me the stories of the Woodland Art, the animals, and their inner symbols.
My first solo show was in March of 2020, just as Covid began, and I painted 50-60 paintings during this period. All of them sold, and International galleries became interested as well.
The Tourism Relief funding was going to finance a show at the Art Gallery of Ontario. We realized we’d have 200 to 300 people a day visiting the show (much larger than we thought) and we ended up moving the show to Bingemans in Kitchener. We filled 7000 square feet of space with woodland art, the show ran for 3 weeks, and was a wild success!
One of the highlights of this experience for me was a chance to create colouring books that I could give to the children who came to see the show.
At the Bingeman’s show, we made a giant canvas tent, and we also had a giant thunderbird sculpture. We had 7 artists feature their work, representing 7 different First Nations, and we hope to have about 50 for our future exhibitions! We had an AR experience too, and we plan to build on that moving forward.
None of these shows would have happened without this funding. A lot of other shows happened due to the success of our own. Since the show, we’ve identified a current extreme misunderstanding of Woodland artists, where they are from, and their traditions. We are trying to organize travelling cultural camps for Woodland artists, perhaps 3-4 gatherings a year in various communities. We are looking into building upon the success of the Tisiget show to open a permanent space.
Learn more about Thomas Sinclair’s pop-up art exhibits
