We sat down with Allison Moore, the newest artist in the Community Gallery, about her and her new collection, Time Tracer: Recent Paintings by Allison Moore, on display at The Pavilion until November 23, 2024.

Tell me about the creation of your newest collection, Time Tracer.

I started the first pieces during the pandemic in 2022 while teaching art at my school. Because it was the pandemic, we had smaller class sizes, and the curriculum kind of went out the window, so we were trying to engage the kids and keep morale up. I was teaching social studies which focuses on Ancient civilizations and so we studied Greek tragedies. The kids made masks and rehearsed and at the end of the year, we put on the production. I took some photos during that time and watching how the kids grew and changed over the year was really special - they are quite charming at that age. Through the photos, I was able to capture them in the process of building new relationships and experimenting with who they are becoming, so it began with being inspired by these great kids with their masks on and rehearsing their play.

In subsequent work, I started placing the figures in landscapes that were meaningful to me. I’ve often thought about the effects of people moving through landscapes or places and wondered what traces of them are left behind. Perhaps people we encounter also leave traces of themselves with us. As a teacher, there is a cycle of students that come and go in my life and they certainly make an impression on me. The paintings of children in the landscapes are not really there, but rather are moving through, encountering a place and moving on. Technically, they appear almost collaged onto the landscape.

As my work evolved, I started placing pictures of myself and my own family within familiar landscapes, some of which are at this Park. There’s one I took of the Koi pond at The Leaf and even one in the John P Crabb Gallery too. I brought my students here, so I’ve got a picture of the backs of my students looking at some art.

Two winters ago, I took a workshop on Solargraphy using pinhole photography to capture the movement of the sun over time. I placed pinhole cameras in my front yard over the winter and the six month long exposures captured the path of the sun as it rises higher and higher with the move towards longer days. I used the images of these prints to paint a series of four works. Myself, my partner, and my grandson make appearances in these paintings. I think they have a magical storyline quality to them along with references to spring, new growth and the cyclical nature of time.

In this point of my life right now, I’m thinking more about more and more about time and how fast it seems to go, and so through my art, I am conjuring up ways to measure it and give attention to moments and places that are special or impactful to me. The landscapes I have chosen for instance are, for the most part, unique Manitoba landscapes. I’ve included capture places like Willow Creek, Assiniboine Park and Forest, Gimli, my front yard, and a host of prairie references.

As a multi-media artist who also works with photography, was it an intentional choice to primarily have this collection be painting or did it just work out that way?

That’s a good question, I guess it did just work out that way. I have been experimenting with some water colours which evolved into acrylics. For many years, I have been an active member of an art group called MAWA (Mentoring Artists for Women's Art) and they offer all sorts of supports for practicing artists including mentorship programs. I was looking for some support as I created my work so I applied to their mentorship program and received a small grant to work with Brenna George, a wonderful painter. We met six times over the course of a few months and she gave me lots of tips and good feedback. It really made a difference in what and how I was painting.

One thing I noticed in this collection was the definition of the painting style, with its sharp lines and brightly definition. How did you create that style of painting? Were you inspired by previous or was that just something that came to you?

I’ve always loved colours, patterns and designs. I lived in Ontario for a time and fell in love the Group of Seven and in particular, Tom Thomson. I've looked at his work a lot and even taught art classes at the Tom Tomson Gallery in Owen Sound many years ago. Another artist who influenced some of my work is Kim Dorland. He is also inspired by Tom Tomson and is a great colourist. One of the things I did with Brenna was identifying and breaking down some of the techniques that Dorland uses.

What inspired you to become an artist?

As far back as I can remember I’ve always wanted to be an artist. Even in kindergarten, I remember telling the kids that I was going to go to art school. I went to art school at the University of Manitoba as soon as I finished high school. After three years, I packed up and moved to Montreal to study theatre design. I combined my credits and graduated with a BFA in theatre design from Concordia. From that point I worked as a scenic painter in Toronto. When I came back to Winnipeg in the early 2000’s, I returned to school at the U of M and became an art teacher. In the middle of that, I couldn’t get a full-time contract so I ended up working at the Winnipeg Art Gallery (WAG-Quamajuq) for a number of years in school programs and education - it was such an amazing opportunity for me. Through all of this, I have continued to make and exhibit my art. That’s all I have really ever wanted to do and hope that when I retire, I can focus solely on creating!

What would you like visitors to get out of your collection?

It would be great if guests made some personal connections to the pieces. There isn’t a single message to take from this collection but maybe when they engage with the images of the children, it will remind them of being a child or of a child in their lives. Or maybe it will remind them of feelings they had growing up or recognize a place and have that emotional response to the work. I think it would be great for those who visit to pause and reflect on their own memories of times in their life where they may have experienced changes, transformation a confrontation with mortality or experienced connections to seasonal cycles.

I’m curious, what was your most impactful piece that you made in this collection to you?

I was really happy with Releasing Spirit. It was one of the last pieces I painted and I can see the growth of my painting in it. It’s a piece that takes place in the forest and I’ve done some washes underneath and painted on top and then kind of drew with the paintbrush over top of it. On one side there’s myself and my grandson and then there’s a circular shape that I’ve got an image of my daughter in and she’s wearing a virtual reality headset and she’s shooting this sort of gun thing, so I really liked how it came together, with the layering going on.

What’s next on the horizon?

I definitely want to work with some garden themes over the coming fall, winter, and spring seasons. I have been taking photos of the plants in my yard and out on my bike rides this summer in preparation.