{"id":360291,"date":"2025-12-21T19:36:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-21T19:36:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/360291\/"},"modified":"2025-12-21T19:36:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-21T19:36:12","slug":"painting-with-coloured-paper-allisha-alis-rising-profile-as-caribbean-artist-in-canada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/360291\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Painting’ with coloured paper \u2013 Allisha Ali\u2019s rising profile as Caribbean artist in Canada"},"content":{"rendered":"

\tFeatures<\/a><\/p>\n

\t
\n\t\tAndrew Gioannetti
\n\t<\/a><\/p>\n

9 Hrs Ago<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Water Protector honours Indigenous water protectors in Canada. – <\/p>\n

ALLISHA Ali never explicitly set out to become an artist. She didn\u2019t study or teach fine art, and until recently, hadn\u2019t sold a single piece she made.<\/p>\n

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 \u2013 a body of work that combines memory, emotion and Caribbean heritage in vibrant compositions constructed of paper.<\/p>\n

Ali migrated to Canada at ten with her mother and sister, and has now lived overseas for more than three decades.<\/p>\n

Yet TT and the wider Caribbean remain central to her identity and much of her art. She tries to visit often \u2013 much of her immediate family is still based in TT.<\/p>\n

\"\"Artist and engineer Allisha Ali uses her Trini roots in her art. –<\/p>\n

\u201cGrowing up in Trinidad left such a strong impression on me,\u201d she said in an interview.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have tons of family there \u2013 aunts, uncles, cousins, my mother-in-law, my brother-in-law. It\u2019s still home.\u201d<\/p>\n

She was raised in D\u2019Abadie \u2013 her mother\u2019s family is from St Helena and her father\u2019s from Sangre Grande \u2013 and Ali\u2019s work often draws on personal geography and family history.<\/p>\n

Her medium is unconventional. She doesn\u2019t use a brush or pencil. Instead, she \u201cpaints with paper,\u201d using paper-quilling techniques to build images from strips of coloured paper layered and blended to resemble brushstrokes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no paint at all,\u201d she explained. \u201cJust glue and paper. I have stacks of different colours and I blend them. It\u2019s very tactile, very therapeutic.\u201d<\/p>\n

That tactile instinct seems to be rooted in both her artistic and professional background.<\/p>\n

Ali explored paper artistry in 2023 as a form of art therapy, but her engineering career \u2013 she\u2019s spent more than 15 years in the tech industry \u2013 has also shaped her approach.<\/p>\n

She describes her process as \u201cmodular\u201d: her pieces are built from individual components, mirroring the way systems are designed in software.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s Caribana festival, leading both kiddies\u2019 and adult sections.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a way to bring my culture forward in Toronto,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"\"Bazodee by artist Allisha Ali. –<\/p>\n

In her growing portfolio, one piece stands out: Oropouche, a vivid rendering of cocoa pods rooted in her father\u2019s lineage and the agricultural legacy of northeastern Trinidad.<\/p>\n

The work is anchored in a detailed family story. In 1923, Ali\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a little girl, I was captivated by the cocoa drying sheds,\u201d Ali said, describing the piece. She recalled the rusted structures and the remnants of the old family house that sparked her imagination.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was the very first artwork I did and the one I sold.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ali said the piece \u2013 and much of her other work \u2013 took shape after she returned to Trinidad seven years after her father\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a lot of emotion in that trip \u2013 grief, nostalgia, joy. I always think of Trinidad as paradise, but it\u2019s layered.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\"\"Soul Rebel, a portrait of Jamaican reggae artist Bob Marley. –<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were times of utter joy, gratitude, peace,\u201d she said. \u201cBut also bewilderment, fear, turmoil and remorse.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Another piece, Soul Rebel, is a portrait of Bob Marley.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can still hear my father singing their songs,\u201d Ali said. \u201cEvery weekend you\u2019ll hear Bob\u2019s music blasting through our house \u2013 not only for our enjoyment, but for the lessons it can teach our kids.\u201d<\/p>\n

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 \u2013 a step she describes as part of a learning curve, with help from her children.<\/p>\n

Amid the growing recognition of her creative talent, Ali\u2019s full-time role as a software engineering manager occupies most of her day.<\/p>\n

She studied biology and environmental education before teaching herself to code and lead teams.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of creativity in engineering,\u201d she said. \u201cProblem-solving, managing people, emotions \u2013 it all feeds into my art.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"One of the pieces by artist Allisha Ali titled Oropouche. –<\/p>\n

She hopes to enter more juried exhibitions and eventually stage a solo show, while continuing to develop more complex, message-driven works.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs I get older, going back to my roots becomes more important. I\u2019m raising two daughters and trying to instil in them the culture I grew up with.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ali doesn\u2019t frame her work as nostalgic, but as a deliberate effort to make space for Caribbean stories in Canadian galleries \u2013 folding memory, lineage and lived experience into the present, one strip of paper at a time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Features Andrew Gioannetti 9 Hrs Ago The Water Protector honours Indigenous water protectors in Canada. – ALLISHA Ali…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":360292,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[76,354,355,49,48,356,75],"class_list":["post-360291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-design","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=360291"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360291\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/360292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=360291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=360291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=360291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}