ROCKINGHAM: Tom Wilson's Beautiful Scars in oil
"Beautiful Scars" consists of a dozen large paintings, oil on wood, all but one of them completed over the past year in his James North studio, as well as a dozen painted guitars resting on pedestals.
Tom Wilson's remarkable search for identity is all encompassing.
Since discovering six years ago, that his birth parents were Mohawk from the Kahnawake reserve in Quebec, that search has expressed itself in all forms of his art — music, writing and painting.
It found a home in his bestselling memoir "Beautiful Scars," as well as in the songs from his new Lee Harvey Osmond album "Mohawk."
That artistic circle will be completed at the Art Gallery of Burlington with the unveiling of an exhibition of his paintings entitled "Beautiful Scars: Mohawk Warriors, Hunters and Chiefs — The Art of Tom Wilson."
The exhibition opens Friday with a reception beginning at 6 p.m., at the gallery on Burlington's Lakeshore Road. Wilson will be there, performing new songs backed by a chamber orchestra.
"Beautiful Scars" consists of a dozen large paintings, oil on wood, all but one of them completed over the past year in his James North studio, as well as a dozen painted guitars resting on pedestals.
Many of the paintings depict Mohawk faces with the story of Wilson's journey of self-discovery etched in tightly formed words within and around them.
"Mohawk 5" by Tom Wilson. | Art Gallery of Burlington
At the age of 53, Wilson accidentally discovered that the people he thought were his parents had in fact adopted and raised him in their home on Hamilton's east Mountain.
That realization led him on a search that would introduce him to a new family — six sisters and brothers, uncles, aunts and cousins — based in Kahnawake.
"The inspiration is coming from the culture on my mother and father's reserve, Kahnawake (on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River near Montreal)," says Wilson, 59. "It's coming from the Mohawk culture.
"The only way I can reach out to my culture and have it reach back to me is by dedicating my art, my music and my writing to that culture, honouring it and bringing some kind of awareness, love and respect to the generations of skywalkers, warriors, hunters and chiefs who are in my family."
As part of the bands Junkhouse, Blackie and the Rodeo Kings and Lee Harvey Osmond, Wilson is best known as a musician. He has been painting in oil, however, for 21 years, starting in 1997 as a therapy to help him quit alcohol.
"I don't use a brush," Wilson says, explaining his unorthodox style. "I paint with my hands and then put the detail in with a very fine oil stick ... it comes from the gut and the heart which is a good place for art to come from."
The exhibition also contains a diorama Wilson has staged, depicting a typical east Mountain living room from the 1960s.
The diorama incorporates reminders from his past on East 36th Street — there pictures of his adoptive parents Bunny and George Wilson, even the "162" street number plaque from their house — with memorabilia from his Mohawk family, including a photo of his great grandfather Peter Lazare delivering a peace pipe to Parliament Hill.
On an old black-and-white TV, a two-minute video loop, interlaces shots from 1960s Hamilton, with contemporary Indigenous scenes and demeaning cartoon footage of stereotypical "Indians."
"Those old cartoons were how Indigenous people were portrayed to me during my childhood," Wilson says.
Wilson says he hopes the exhibition will travel to other galleries across Canada over the next two years.
"I want this show to go out and represent not only my artwork but also Kahnawake," Wilson says.
Meanwhile, Wilson has plenty of other things to keep him busy. He travels to Nashville next month to begin work on a new Blackie and the Rodeo Kings album and hopes to start writing a second book, a companion piece to "Beautiful Scars, in January, as well officially release the new Lee Harvey Osmond album on Jan. 25.
Beautiful Scars
Mohawk Warriors, Hunters and Chiefs — The Art of Tom Wilson
What
An exhibition of paintings by Hamilton artist Tom Wilson
Dec. 1 to Jan. 27
Where
The Art Gallery of Burlington
1333 Lakeshore Rd., Burlington
When
Opening Reception
Nov. 30, 6 to 9 p.m.
Admission
Free
What
An exhibition of paintings by Hamilton artist Tom Wilson
Dec. 1 to Jan. 27
Where
The Art Gallery of Burlington
- The 'Beautiful Scars' of Tom Wilson
When
Opening Reception
Nov. 30, 6 to 9 p.m.
Admission
Free
- The 'Beautiful Scars' of Tom Wilson
By Graham Rockingham Contributing Columnist
The Hamilton Spectator Thu., Nov. 29, 2018 Article was updated Mar. 02, 2020