Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Winona Nelson. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Winona, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Naming anything – including a business – is so hard. Right? What’s the story behind how you came up with the name of your brand?
The Language of the Lil’wat Nation is called Ucwalmícwts. My Ucwalmiwcts name is t̓eq̓á7el ti qepm̓íc, which means “wing of a swan”. My full legal name is Winona Alessandra Nelson. When I was trying to decide on a name for my little shop idea, my first thought was to try and give a nod to my language or my name. When I was little I had a small column in our local newspaper called “Swan’s Wing”, where I published a poem a week. After trying out a lot of different variations and things, “Alessandra’s Wing” came about. I wanted to use my middle name because it’s not what I usually go by, and calling the shop a “wing” was cute, like the wing of a building, an area, a place that holds space. I purposefully didn’t state any sort of products in the name, such as “Alessandra’s Macrame” or what have you, because I tend to switch things up and go with my creative flow, which would mean my shop would not always sell the same things. I love to draw, both digitally and traditionally, paint, and make other sort of crafts, so being specific seemed like a bad move. In addition, I would love to one day be able to sell other indigenous and local artists’ works and products. People who love to make things but may not want to be the face or the driving force to get their stuff out in the world. It’s a shame when something wonderful can’t be shared, and I would love to give opportunity for other people’s creativities to shine as well, one day.
Winona, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
My name is t̓aq̓á7el̓ ti qepm̓íc, or Winona. I am a Lil’wat First Nations x Swiss creative who grew up in Lil’wat Nation Territory in B.C., Canada. I am a part-time freelance artist under the name Alessandra’s Wing. At the moment I mostly take commissions for macrame products and art illlustrations. As a macrame artist, I like to experiment with new designs and rarely make the same piece twice. My goal is to provide a variety of creative products that people can enjoy, from macrame plant hangers, wall hangings, or keychains, to illustrations, digital drawings, or paintings, and whatever else I find cool and interesting! I also occasionally curate pieces from other local artists to include in my shop because I am blessed to be surrounded by so many other creatives, that I want to create a space and a platform for them to be able to benefit and share their works proudly.
Both macrame and drawing are relatively new to me. I only discovered that I could draw, and that I enjoyed it, around 2016, and my interest in macrame sprouted when a friend of mine bought a piece from a local artist at the time, and I was curious about what one could make with that skill. I was especially interested in plant hangers at first. I am a big lover of functional art. If you need to make use of something, it may as well be nice to look at right? My drawing journey is still making its way, so I don’t have a set style or specific area, but I do love to draw anime/cartoon characters, and I love to paint things like landscapes and pets!
Some of my macrame items will feature or include deer antlers and hooves. As Líl̓wat7ul, we believe in using what’s available, and when we hunt or fish, we utilize every part of the animal as a way to honour its’ sacrifice. I also create designs that include dreamcatchers, which are traditionally from the Ojibwe people but have permeated other First Nations cultures as a result of trade and clan relations through the centuries. All of my pieces will carry positive energy, but I take extra care when making dreamcatchers so as to make them safe and positive for others to use.
Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.
I think my approach as an artist may be a little difficult to understand for someone who is more business minded. The work I do is part-time, it is not my main source of revenue, and above all else I want to honour my creative experience and the ebbs and flows that this entails. I never want to make it so that this thing I love doing so much becomes a chore or something I must do. So sometimes I turn down opportunities or say no to commissions if I’m a bit overloaded or too busy, and I think someone looking at the figures might roll their eyes at me a little for this. That isn’t to say that I won’t one day make this a full time endeavor, but as of right now I love having the freedom of taking my time with each commission or project, and not being worried about meeting a monthly commission quota or chasing down payments. At the heart of it, the art I do is for me; it is therapeutic and expands my mind, it is mindful and challenging and at the end of the day that’s the reason I do it above all else. I was actually thinking the other day how odd I must be for valuing the journey of “making” more than the end result. Once a piece is created I shrug and say “I wonder what’s next?’ and don’t look too closely after that. This is a reason that I love to sell or gift my pieces, because when I see another person react to my work, it gets a different perspective, a different form of appreciation than I can give, and I get to share in their experience of my work as well. I love hearing people share their interpretations of a painting or tell me what a particular piece might remind them of, it gives me a nice, warm-and-fuzzy little thrill.
Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?
Yes! Particularly for my drawing journey. Something I struggle with is having a ton of ideas and images in my mind but being unable to get them down on paper efficiently enough with enough quality. In other words, I can see the character posed in a specific way in my mind, but I lack the skills to be able to just sit down and draw it. So something I have really been trying to focus on to improve is the study of gesture and anatomy when drawing people and characters, and something I came across recently was a website called line-of-action.com. It’s a free website that just has a ton of refences from hands to facial expressions to full body model references, and they even have a feature where you can have a set time where they show you randomly generated reference photos for, say, a minute at a time, and you can go through your own personal art class. I thought this was great and wished I had had access to it a little earlier in my artistic journey, when I may have had more time to sit down and do studies and practice. Other things like online learning platforms like Skillshare or 21 platforms are also cool, although again, it is hard to put aside that time to sit down and dictate your own study pace.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @alessandra.wings.it
- Facebook: Alessandra’s Wing
Image Credits
Sheri Marie Ptolemy