Allison Moore was a lover of making long before her ‘official’ studies began. Being in nature, solitude and with busy hands have remained constant sources of joy throughout her life. She began her studies in visual arts at the University of Manitoba in 1987 and completed her BFA in theatre design at Montreal’s Concordia University. Moving on to Toronto, she worked as a scenic painter in film and theatre, all the while keeping up her own art practice. Upon returning to Winnipeg in 2003, Allison enrolled in the Education program at the University of Manitoba where she completed both her Bachelor and Masters degrees in Education. Her award winning thesis employed arts-based methodologies that explored her artist/researcher/teacher identity.
Existential curiosity has been a constant, underlying much of Allison’s art making. Who are we, why are we here, how are we connected to one another and to the non-human world? Her early painting engaged with these questions, using imagery from nature in juxtaposition with man made structures to draw connections between the beauty and meaning in what is created by humans versus what is created by natural forces or even a higher creator.
Becoming a mother (and now grandmother) has greatly impacted Allison’s art practice. Experimenting with scale, new materials and subject matter was required. Aspects of daily life such as cooking, cleaning, eating, exercising, working, housework, and shopping became fodder for Allison’s work evolved to include various mediums from video to painting, collage, and sculpture.
Her most recent work continues to explore intergenerational connections as well as human relationships to the natural world and returning to the existential, the possibility of moving beyond this worldly body and home.
Allison continues to exhibit her work in and around Winnipeg. She has taught art for various programs, galleries and schools throughout Ontario and Manitoba and is now working with amazing young artists in the Pembina Trails School Division as a middle school art teacher.
Allison Moore 