Looking back, moving forward

Randy Thomas feels like he is in another world when he paints.
“I feel a lot closer to my dad when I paint,” said the son of Woodland artist Roy Thomas. “All his teachings and sayings come back to me when I paint.”
After his father passed away in 2004, Thomas spent time dealing with his feelings but as soon as he began painting he could hear his father’s voice.
“I could smell his hair, and it brings me to a whole other place I love to be in,” Thomas said. “I wake up every day to paint. That’s what I think about when I wake up and that’s the last thing I think about when I go to bed.”
Thomas said he doesn’t know all the teachings his father learned from his grandparents, so he paints from what he knows as a person who grew up in the urban environment of Thunder Bay.
“The hardest part for me is finding my own style,” Thomas said. “You look up to all these other artists and think, ‘wow I want to be like them.’”
But Thomas wants to be different.
“Now I’ve got some influences that helped me to be who I want to be and to be original,” Thomas said.
Although Thomas didn’t have his art displayed in the fancy display cases during high school, his work in now showcased on Thunder Bay’s newly recreated waterfront.
“With my painting, every time I finish a painting it feels better than selling it,” Thomas said. “That means a lot to me.”
Thomas and two other emerging and mid-career artists discussed the influence of Roy Thomas and other First Nation artist pioneers on their own work during a June 28 panel discussion at the Thunder Bay Art Gallery, where the Roy Thomas Vision Circle exhibition is on display until Sept. 9.
Kristy Cameron, a Metis artist from Atikokan, also feels the presence of Roy Thomas when she works on her art.
“I am drawn to Roy’s style, his use of composition and his spiritual interpretation,” Cameron said. “In my work I like to incorporate movement, representations of lifestyles and real depictions of nature that I’ve observed.”
Cameron said she used to paint realistic portraits and images of nature before she developed her own Woodland style.
“I wanted to create more movement and energy with my colours and spiritual concepts,” Cameron said. “I felt I had a bond with my new style and I wanted to immerse myself in it.”
Christian Chapman, a mixed media artist from Fort William First Nation, said his work varies depending on where he is and what he is doing.
“My work has a lot of humour in it,” Chapman said, describing a work based on an e-mail his partner received from her aunt in Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug.
He also described an image featuring Shania Twain surrounded by Woodland style images.
“I don’t normally paint in the traditional Woodland style,” Chapman said. “Yet I am very much influenced by artists such as Roy Thomas and Norval Morrisseau.”
Chapman said he usually focuses on mixed-media art, pointing out an image of the Stanley Cup under water.
“This is what I call Our Lord Stanley,” Chapman said. “Back in the early days of the NHL, Kenora had a (Stanley Cup champion) hockey team. I guess they were out in a boat and the Stanley Cup actually went into the drink.”