9 Hrs Ago
The Water Protector honours Indigenous water protectors in Canada. –
ALLISHA Ali never explicitly set out to become an artist. She didn’t study or teach fine art, and until recently, hadn’t sold a single piece she made.
But in quiet hours between managing software engineering teams and raising two daughters in Toronto, the Trinidad-born Ali has been building something deeply personal – a body of work that combines memory, emotion and Caribbean heritage in vibrant compositions constructed of paper.
Ali migrated to Canada at ten with her mother and sister, and has now lived overseas for more than three decades.
Yet TT and the wider Caribbean remain central to her identity and much of her art. She tries to visit often – much of her immediate family is still based in TT.
Artist and engineer Allisha Ali uses her Trini roots in her art. –
“Growing up in Trinidad left such a strong impression on me,” she said in an interview.
“I have tons of family there – aunts, uncles, cousins, my mother-in-law, my brother-in-law. It’s still home.”
She was raised in D’Abadie – her mother’s family is from St Helena and her father’s from Sangre Grande – and Ali’s work often draws on personal geography and family history.
Her medium is unconventional. She doesn’t use a brush or pencil. Instead, she “paints with paper,” using paper-quilling techniques to build images from strips of coloured paper layered and blended to resemble brushstrokes.
“There’s no paint at all,” she explained. “Just glue and paper. I have stacks of different colours and I blend them. It’s very tactile, very therapeutic.”
That tactile instinct seems to be rooted in both her artistic and professional background.
Ali explored paper artistry in 2023 as a form of art therapy, but her engineering career – she’s spent more than 15 years in the tech industry – has also shaped her approach.
She describes her process as “modular”: her pieces are built from individual components, mirroring the way systems are designed in software.
Her creative foundation was laid early. Her father, a draughtsman, taught her to draw, while her mother encouraged artistic expression and helped build costumes when Ali was involved in mas. For several years, Ali designed and made costumes for the Saldenah Carnival band for Toronto’s Caribana festival, leading both kiddies’ and adult sections.
“It was a way to bring my culture forward in Toronto,” she said.
Bazodee by artist Allisha Ali. –
In her growing portfolio, one piece stands out: Oropouche, a vivid rendering of cocoa pods rooted in her father’s lineage and the agricultural legacy of northeastern Trinidad.
The work is anchored in a detailed family story. In 1923, Ali’s great-great-grandfather, Nabi George Ali, acquired a 99-year state lease to develop 16 acres of agricultural land in Oropouche, building on foundations laid by ancestors who arrived from India as indentured workers. This St Madeleine estate produced cocoa, coffee, coconut, citrus and other crops, sustaining both the Ali family and the surrounding community for decades.
“As a little girl, I was captivated by the cocoa drying sheds,” Ali said, describing the piece. She recalled the rusted structures and the remnants of the old family house that sparked her imagination.
“That was the very first artwork I did and the one I sold.”
Ali said the piece – and much of her other work – took shape after she returned to Trinidad seven years after her father’s death.
“There was a lot of emotion in that trip – grief, nostalgia, joy. I always think of Trinidad as paradise, but it’s layered.”
Her second major work, Bazodee, reflects the overwhelming experience of returning to Trinidad to bury her father and confronting the complex reality of relationships, memory and belonging. The piece, she said, moves from anxiety and uncertainty into an intense burst of emotion.
Soul Rebel, a portrait of Jamaican reggae artist Bob Marley. –
“There were times of utter joy, gratitude, peace,” she said. “But also bewilderment, fear, turmoil and remorse.
“The artform is a raw, naive exploration of paper quilling. Paper provides me with a tactile outlet to engage in a unique textural and colour-blending experience.”
Other works further expand her thematic range. The Water Protector honours Indigenous water protectors in Canada and was inspired by one of her daughters learning about Anishinaabe activist Autumn Peltier, who began advocating for clean drinking water at eight and later addressed the UN General Assembly.
Another piece, Soul Rebel, is a portrait of Bob Marley.
“I can still hear my father singing their songs,” Ali said. “Every weekend you’ll hear Bob’s music blasting through our house – not only for our enjoyment, but for the lessons it can teach our kids.”
Ali has completed eight pieces so far, most given away as gifts. Her first sale came only after someone saw Oropouche on Instagram and insisted on buying it. She joined the platform recently, coinciding with her first exhibition in the Greater Toronto Area – a step she describes as part of a learning curve, with help from her children.
Amid the growing recognition of her creative talent, Ali’s full-time role as a software engineering manager occupies most of her day.
She studied biology and environmental education before teaching herself to code and lead teams.
“There’s a lot of creativity in engineering,” she said. “Problem-solving, managing people, emotions – it all feeds into my art.”
One of the pieces by artist Allisha Ali titled Oropouche. –
She hopes to enter more juried exhibitions and eventually stage a solo show, while continuing to develop more complex, message-driven works.
“As I get older, going back to my roots becomes more important. I’m raising two daughters and trying to instil in them the culture I grew up with.”
Ali doesn’t frame her work as nostalgic, but as a deliberate effort to make space for Caribbean stories in Canadian galleries – folding memory, lineage and lived experience into the present, one strip of paper at a time.