Featured Artist: Alisa McRonald - Faces of Folks

Alisa McRonald's featured collection, Faces of Folks will be on view in the Queen Shop's Retail Feature Window, from June 20 - July 20, 2025. This installation is also a part of Pride Toronto as a 2025 Affiliate Event!

Alisa McRonald is inspired by handmade items such as quilts and afghans. For her, these items have a feeling of nostalgia and comfort to them. Passionate about using reclaimed textiles, she has made a commitment to use as much as possible in her work (she's nearing 100%). Her interest in textiles was passed down through generations—through her mother, grandmothers, and great-grandmothers, as they all used craft traditions as a way to connect, create, and carry culture. 

"I grew up surrounded by sewing, quilting, and knitting," Alisa says in reflection, "and those tactile experiences became foundational to how I understand storytelling and identity. Textiles have always felt like a language I inherited—quiet, expressive, and deeply personal."

Alisa McRonald’s woven weirdos live in the ironic pop-culture paradise of a Queer GenX Feminist. Her work is a tactile fruit salad with a soupçon of the esoteric. Folklore, 80s/90s pop culture, queer identity, and oddities are central elements to this body of work as they draw from the same layers of Alisa's life, as she shares, "I draw on memories of my aunts' punk albums, ghost stories, and queer discovery to create textile pieces that, for me, feel both personal and mythic. These themes surface through symbolism, texture, and character-like forms—inviting viewers into a world that’s playful, strange, and emotionally resonant. They allow me to tell stories that are both specific and universal, grounded in identity but open to interpretation."

The saturation of her fibre works is a signature to her practice. She often begins with colour when making a piece, as for Alisa; "Colour is where emotion, memory, and story begin to take shape, guiding the rest of the work as it evolves through stitching, layering, and intuition." 

"Working with textiles is both freeing and challenging: the slowness of handwork allows for reflection, but its physical demands can be limiting, especially with my disability. Still, its flexibility and familiarity make it an ideal material for exploring complex ideas with warmth and accessibility."

Textile as a medium deeply shapes Alisa's forms and subject matter as it requires intimacy with fibre and brings introspection, and through her family, the practice of hand-working textiles is rooted in tradition, which makes it perfect for storytelling. Its softness invites closeness, while its history carries cultural weight. 

A devoted maker of things, Alisa has exhibited and performed nationally and internationally. Her work has been featured in publications such as: Harper’s Bazaar Japan, Untitled Magazine and the Toronto Star. She was awarded the 2024 Craft Ontario Rich Foundation Residency award, was a Creative in Residence for the 2023 Ontario Culture Days and has won the 2023 Best Product/Design Award from DesignTO, the 2020 Best of Craft and Design Award from the Toronto Outdoor Art Fair and her work has been featured on many curatorial lists.

Check out the Online Collection here and make sure to visit the Queen Shop to view Faces of Folks by Alisa McRonald in person!