Magnetawan First Nation artist and Hilroy Canada collaboration now available in Wal-Mart Canada

By Rick Garrick

MAGNETAWAN FIRST NATION — Magnetawan First Nation artist Autumn Smith is enjoying her collaboration with Hilroy Canada to create artwork for their paper products under her artist name of Mishiikenh Kwe.

“It’s super exciting,” Smith says. “I started painting in 2016 and pretty much since then I’ve just been painting on canvases and I mail them all over the place. I’ve mailed art to Australia, to the Netherlands and Switzerland, but I’ve never seen my art in stores across Canada, so that was really different — it’s really cool.”

Smith says Hilroy Canada initially asked her last year if she was interested in working with them to create artwork for their products. Her Hilroy Canada designed products are currently for sale in Walmart stores in Canada and online.

“They’ve been working with artists living in Canada for the past few years to design different covers,” Smith says. “They wanted something that was kind of representing Canada, the land, and the people so what I chose was the Anishinabek Creation Story.”

Smith says she created the artwork with acrylic paints, noting that she had not yet started doing digital artwork at the time.

“I got some drawings out and I sent Hilroy some examples and that’s the one they chose, they really liked that turtle with the different species of animals on the back,” Smith says. “Our Creation stories tell about who we are as a people, it tells about our culture and what we believe. I don’t consider myself to be a Canadian artist, I’m an Anishinabek artist and I wanted to portray that.”

Smith says she sent Hilroy Canada a photo of the completed painting, which she created using heavy body acrylic paints.

“They liked it so I brought them the physical piece right to their office in Mississauga,” Smith says. “And I got to see the other pieces in person that the other artists did as well.”

Smith says she began doing art therapy with a counsellor after her family moved to the city when she was about six-years-old.

“I had a really hard time with moving to the city and being away from my community,” Smith says. “[The counsellor] was asking me stuff like, ‘What makes you happy?’ and ‘What are you thinking about?’ and I was really thinking about home and the land there and the stories my grandma used to tell and my community, so that’s what I’ve always kind of drawn.”

Smith says she began painting in 2016 when a friend told her they would buy one of her drawings if she painted it.

“I bought some acrylic paint and I bought a canvas and I painted a painting for my friend and I sold it for $60,” Smith says. “And I saw the potential in it, that was maybe a way I could support myself. After college, I had a full-time permanent job as a child and youth worker; I quit that job in 2018 and I’ve just been painting since then.”

Smith says she usually does her painting whenever she has time after taking care of her two-year-old son’s needs.

“Sometimes he paints with me or alongside me,” Smith says. “He’s really into art, too.”

Smith says her grandmother was a beadworker who used to draw little pictures.

“She was a storyteller so I would consider my grandmother to be an artist, too,” Smith says. “That’s where a lot of my inspiration came from — my grandma. My grandma was a language speaker from Wiikwemkoong on Manitoulin Island and she told really good stories, and I miss her a lot. She is in all of my paintings.”

Smith says her artwork is posted on her Mishiikenh Kwe Instagram and Facebook pages and at the www.legaleriste.com online shop.