cikâstêpayihcikêwin - Allen Sapp otâcimowin

He moved to North Battleford and took up selling paintings door to door. Unschooled in art, speaking only broken English, and extremely shy, Allen was ill equipped to make a living as an artist. Allen's art consisted of calendar images of deer in mountain streams, exotic locations, and teary-eyed children. Dr. Gonor was a local physician with a deep respect for world culture and openness to all people. He refused to buy the calendar art Allen was selling but asked him to paint his memories of his early reserve life. At first Allen was reluctant and didn't know what to make of someone who wanted him to paint the unremarkable memories of the years spent with his grandparents.

He used to paint any kind of picture. I heard Dr. Gonor say "You better turn around… on your own people-paint your own people. So that's how things started.

Cautiously, Allen considered the request, seeking the advice of his father and other elders. They encouraged Allen to follow the doctor's advice and so he began to open his mind to his childhood memories as the subject of his canvases. Once he began to paint his childhood recollections, he experienced an avalanche of memories and images. These vivid recollections caused him to stay up all night painting until the memories were satisfied and had found expression and form upon the canvas. Allen seemed to possess a photographic memory that enabled him to render the memories with startling accuracy, remarkable clarity, and the true sensitivity of one who had lived the experience. Allen's work quickly gained national and international attention and by 1970, it was exhibited in galleries from London to Los Angeles. Allen found himself the center of books and film documentaries and the recipient of major awards and honors. Over the past thirty years, Allen has committed to canvas hundreds of memories that together weave the story of his life. In his work we find no hidden symbols or layers of meaning. Rather, his art is a quiet testimony to what it means to live the “old way”.