By Sonia Foster

At age 32, artist Alicia Saunders has her head squarely on her shoulders. A Torontonian of four years, this self-assured young lady originally hails from Montreal. She was born to a Jamaican father and Trinidadian mother.

As a young girl, Alicia was fascinated by her brother Nathaniel’s affinity for drawing comics in elementary school. Soon her fascination turned to inspiration for the burgeoning artist whose main form of expression is painting. Besides putting brush to canvas, Alicia also does sculpting and dabbles in papier-mâché. Her style of art most closely resembles surrealism, Dali and Picasso coming to mind, yet inspired by the Renaissance period seeing such artists as Da Vinci and Michelangelo. “Work from the Renaissance was a huge influence too. When I tried to learn about that I just thought how it was so incredible how accurately people were able to just capture a moment and capture life.” Art seems to run in the family; her grandmother’s sisters being clay sculptors and uncle, an abstract artist.

Her paintings are very interesting, giving the observer a glimpse into her surrealist side. She paints in oils, watercolors and acrylics but a penciled self-portrait is the first thing you see as you enter her home. Two of her most striking watercolors are ‘Francine’ and ‘Hands’. Both watercolors were painted in 2017, the former being of her mother and the latter inspired by a Japanese girl.

‘Francine’ is about light and how it brings out the inner wranglings of the subject. How the light makes her look outwardly and what it reveals about the heart of the person. Alicia is very interested in self-reflecting. She wants the individual to see her work and do inner soul-searching that would bring about transformation in the person. A sort of self-governance. She believes if people start with themselves the world would be a better place.

‘Hands’, painted in less than three hours, is the head of a little girl with cradling hands for hair. This is a reflection of God’s creative power that says He “knit us together in our mother’s womb.” We are all unique and special in our own right she feels. She is inspired by people which is evident in her work. She tries to see people as God sees them and paints that.

Alicia loves to explore inner turmoil. She has over 30 pieces of art work in her possession that reflect that. One is a booklet that shows a self-portrait called ‘Revelation’. It features layers of abstract brush strokes on multiple layers of plastic film, coming together to reveal a portrait of the artist herself.

To hone her artistry, she attended Concordia University in Montreal but the program was not what she was expecting. After 3 years, she ended up not wanting to paint after graduating in 2012. She felt her love of art disappeared and she was no longer inspired to paint. She made masks during the pandemic, actually creating some for the Prime Minister of Canada and Premier of Quebec under Manik Fashion. She is currently commissioned to paint a turtle and loves the idea as she wanted to start painting animals. She finally decided that art was not about making something but just enjoying the process.

Her sculpting was first done in school and she loved it. She has a sculpture that is a representation of her own hands. “My bigger intention with the work are for people to self-reflect. I just hope that people will resolve inner problems before solving the outer ones.” She believes global focused works and big issues are the priority right now and that we cannot solve them if we don’t deal with home first. The rest of the issues will resolve themselves. Her hands sculpture is a part of her self-reflecting. Starting with the ‘man in the mirror’ so to speak.

Alicia is finally enjoying her gift again after her time in university threatened her craft. She wants a body of work that is like the Renaissance pieces – long lasting.