The Quilled Artwork of Tara Francis

A quillwork portrait called 𝘓𝘶𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘢* is in the spotlight after the McMichael Canadian Collection acquired the work by Tara Francis at Art Toronto 2026, Canada’s annual art fair.

A Mi’kmaw artist, Francis uses traditional porcupine quillwork techniques in innovative ways to express her personal experiences of contemporary Wabanaki womanhood, the McMichael says.

The subject of this work is Francis’s maternal grandmother Lucretia McLaughlin, painstakingly memorialized here as a young woman in the early 20th century.

Below, some of Francis’s other work . (Note: The McMichael, one of Canada’s premiere art venues, is closed for three years to undergo a landmark redevelopment of its buildings and grounds.

Tara Francis at Gallery on Queen in Fredericton, New Brunswick

Tara Francis instagram

*Tara Francis, 𝘓𝘶𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘢, 2023, porcupine quills in birchbark, 8 × 10 in.