Isable Mosseler
Tribune
It’s an exciting time for local bead artist Farrah Lewis, whose work was mentioned with an appreciative nod in an article published February 28, 2024 in Vogue magazine. Lewis is a 25-year-old bead artist who works out of her studio in Sturgeon Falls. A bolo tie she designed was displayed by Christian Allaire, the Senior Fashion and Style Writer at Vogue. The two are cousins, both members of Nipissing First Nation (NFN).
Allaire, currently living in New York, covers celebrity style, red carpet fashion, trends and emerging designers, with a particular leaning towards Indigenous artistry and how it influences the fashion world. His article in February focused on the resurgence of the bolo in celebrity fashion, and in the cover photo he sported such a bolo, designed and created by Lewis. It was a lovely reflection and acknowledgement to the artistry of his cousin back home in Nipissing, and a thrilling boost for the local artist. Farrah Lewis was surprised. “It kind of came out of nowhere and I’m super happy about it” she beams.
Lewis sells her work on Instagram, where she has 11,500 followers. She had most of those followers long before the article appeared, but she confirms that there was definitely a boost following the publication.
The artist has been beading since 2016, when she was a senior at Nbisiing Secondary School. Lewis looks very young for her age, but her art form connects her to a tradition as old as time – with a lot of modern flare! “I attended Nbisiing High School for my 12th year, and I took an art class with them and I just fell in love with it, became totally passionate and I couldn’t stop… I was 17 years old.” She relates that she’s lived in the surrounds of Nipissing First Nation her entire life, both on and off-reserve, “kind of back and forth”. All of her family lives in the area and she is very close to them. She graduated in 2016, “and now I do beadwork full time,” she says proudly.
Can a person make a living doing beadwork? “Absolutely!” Lewis assures. Despite the familiar refrain that the artist’s life is a tough life, Lewis says it’s also extremely fulfilling. She is an online entrepreneur. “Currently I only sell through Instagram, so I do usually about two to three drops per month. And then I also take on custom orders as well. And I do the occasional workshop.” She offers her workshops through NFN, some in-person in Garden Village and some over Zoom for those who cannot attend in person.
While one would expect much of her work to be traditionally inspired, what is surprising when looking through her collection is the volume of work which is not primarily of an Indigenous theme, work inspired by other sources. Farrah Lewis comments, “I love my culture and it’s my main inspiration behind everything that I do, but I think it’s important as an Indigenous artist to branch out and let the public know that we can do all kinds of art, and it’s still Indigenous art because we’re Indigenous people doing it… I’m really inspired by music, pop culture, and just the beauty of the natural world around us.”
She boasts a lot of very interesting pieces. “Yeah, some of them are a little out there,” she agrees. Some of the motifs seem dark, skulls and more, taking on Indigenous themes from other areas, a little like mezoamerican pre-Columbian artistry, the kind of things one finds among the Indigenous people who honour Day of the Dead, for example. Lewis mentions that she does struggle on occasion with mental health issues, and some of this comes out in her artwork, but she adds that her art brings light to it. She expresses all the edges of the artistic soul.
“My favourite things to do are earrings,” she says of her ambition to decorate her world. “I love seeing earrings on people, especially if they’re kind of funky and crazy. But eventually I would like to branch out into the fashion and clothing world. It’s kind of always been something in the back of my mind.” Having her art featured in Vogue was a bit of an introduction into that world, a bit of excitement most definitely, stirring her passion further. “Chris is my cousin. My grandma and his mom are sisters. So Christian Allaire, who wrote the article, he’s been super supportive of my work since the very beginning, when I first started, always encouraging, always keeping me motivated. And I can’t thank him enough for doing what he’s done.”
Of course, Allaire’s attention is not just focused on his cousin. He regularly covers events such as the Santa Fe Indian Market and Indigenous Fashion Weeks. Farrah thinks her cousin is a very loving being, and he’s given a voice and platform to many artists.
