About The Artist
Margaux Allard

I was born on October 28, 1965 in Regina Saskatchewan. From birth it was discovered that I have an under-developed optic nerve and I am registered with the Canadian National Institute For The Blind. I am blind in one eye and have about 10% of my vision in the other. I choose to consider my impairment a challenge rather than a disability. I share my visual impairment with others not as a means to promote my artwork but rather as a way to inspire and educate people. With the use of basic visual aids I attended regular public school. This was a very difficult path but I am so happy that my parents didn’t send me to a school for the blind because I feel that today I am a much stronger person because of their decision.

I have been drawing since I was a child and I have no formal training other then the basic art classes that I took while attending public school. In my early twenties I discovered that I could add a great deal of detail to my work by drawing through a very strong magnifying glass. Even though this discovery opened a new doorway for me and dramatically improved the quality of my art I still didn’t take my work very serious. My art was always just a hobby for me until one day my parents were helping someone at a craft fair. They had a few of my drawings that they framed and asked me to put a price on them, this was difficult to do. How do you put a price on something that is so much a part of you? They displayed my drawings at the fair and to my surprise my work was well received and I even sold a couple of pieces. This is what prompted me to become more serious about my artwork.

Time passed and my art started to gain more recognition via local galleries and articles in the paper and magazines as well as through various sites on the Internet. I have always loved to work with pencil and it will always be my favorite medium but over the years I have started to experiment with acrylic paint. My pencil drawings are very detailed, intense and meditative where as my paintings are more simplistic, whimsical and free flowing and I enjoy doing both very much!

My father is German and my mother is Lakota and I feel so fortunate that I grew up with two very diverse cultures and people have told me that they are evident in my artwork. My grandma Christina lived with us for many years giving me a great deal of exposure to my Lakota heritage. I grew up going to pow wows and eating traditional Lakota foods and listening to grandma’s interesting stories while I watched her do her beautiful beadwork. Today I create my own nontraditional jewelry, medicine bags and dancing sticks.

When I was in my mid twenties my grandma Christina gave me her Lakota name, White Swallow Woman (Opejita Ska Win). She was such a big part of my life, when she passed away in 1993 my heart was completely broken. I am so happy that she left me with many fond memories and I carry her name through my life with pride.

There are many things in life that spark my creativity so when I draw and paint I don’t like to stick to one particular theme. I love anything mystical and supernatural so many of my pieces have a fantasy or Gothic feel to them, also Native American and Asian cultures are the inspiration behind many of my drawings. I also love to draw landscapes that have a surrealistic twist.

In 2002 my husband David and I created and maintain www.artbymargaux.com where I have a virtual gallery and share stories and photos of my life and family. I am happy to say that the site has grown considerably over the years. I spent many years doing my artwork on the kitchen table and never had a formal place to display my art at home so in 2007 we started to build a gallery and studio in our backyard. After one year of very hard work in 2008 I started my own home based business called Krazy Kat Lady Studio & Gallery . I chose this name because of my love for cats! We have five cats that are an inspiration and I have created many drawings that have a cat theme. I truly am a crazy cat lady; I collect anything that is cat themed from fabrics to ornaments as well as jewelry etc!

I consider my artistic abilities to be a true gift and I feel so blessed that I am able to express myself in this way. I believe that we are all here on Earth as both teachers and students and that we all have a gift to share with each other. Imagination and self-expression are the extension of the soul!

To read more about Margaux's visual impairment visit
Living With A Visual Impairment

I was going to put this on my ‘Living With A Visual Impairment’ page but I thought that I would put it here instead because I want to make sure that people read this.

Since I have started associating my visual impairment with my artwork I have found that most people are quite intrigued. I have had some negative comments, there are those individuals who feel that I am using my visual impairment as a gimmick to promote my art or draw attention to myself. Well this couldn’t be further from the truth.

For years I was very shy and ashamed of my eyesight and absolutely didn’t associate it with my artwork. As I mentioned in my biography I really wanted people to just like my work for what it was. With the prompting of the person (Jeff) who owned the first gallery to display my work, I reluctantly started to explain to people how I draw and included it in my biography. At first this wasn’t easy because it really made me feel like a sideshow freak. However, people’s reactions surprised me everyone seemed so inspired by something that I was ashamed of. Even though I tried to explain how bad my eyesight was my artwork is so detailed that people really didn’t understand just how blind I am. I absolutely need the strong magnifying glass to draw. In fact I couldn’t do my artwork without it. I can see the whole drawing when I look at it with my naked eye but I can’t see the real detail. It is not out of focus it is just too small to see. On many occasions people have approached both my husband David and my parents and say, are you sure Margaux is actually blind?

Johanna from Park Studio gallery, where I was displaying my art suggested that I do art demonstrations. This was VERY difficult for me to do because I have never drawn in front of anyone but it was the only way to show people how I draw. I also really hate to use visual aids in front of people. I know that it is just a stupid vanity thing and I am trying to get over this. It took me a long time to actually get up the nerve to do an art demonstration at the gallery. There were lots of tears and I had to swallow my stupid pride. I felt like I was going to be center ring at a circus, “Come one come all and see the blind girl draw!” I know this sounds silly but that is the way I felt. I finally got up the courage to do it and a lot of people watched me draw. It wasn’t so bad having all the people stand there and watch me work. I am very focused when I draw, my art requires so much concentration that it was like they weren’t even there. I think more people have a better understanding of how I draw and it is also good therapy for me.

As for those individuals who think that I am doing this as a gimmick well I guess they have the right to think what they want. However, in thinking this way they are completely missing the point as to why I am doing this. I want to educate and inspire people. I want people to look within themselves and discover their own talents. I want others to realize that people with disabilities are just people.

For years I had no self-confidence. When it came time to move out on my own I was absolutely terrified because I had no idea what I was going to do for the rest of my life or if I could even do anything. I didn’t graduate and thought that I was a big nothing who would spend the rest of her life on welfare…YIKES!!! There was actually a point when I seriously considered ending my life. This is something that I haven’t really shared with anyone until now. It took many years but things have turned around for me and I have discovered a great deal about myself. So I figure the advice I can give is, rather then having someone else tell you what your limitations and abilities are I want you to find these things out for yourself. You might be completely surprised at what you can do when you put your mind to it!

In 2002 my husband David and I decided the best way to get more exposure for my artwork was via the Internet. So we shopped around for a Webmaster and were surprised at how much it would cost to get a website designed for us. David and I both enjoy expressing our creativity and learning new things and decided that it was time to learn how to design our own website.

David started to study HTML code through books as well as on the Internet. We purchased a digital camera and took photos of all my artwork. Our websites humble beginnings started with four pages, one page for my biography and three pages for my galleries.

As time passed we learned more and the site grew and the traffic increased. In my late twenties, I was trained to use Corel Draw when I worked for a design house as a graphic artist and ad designer. Now I use Corel Draw to design all the images that you see on the site today

Our humble little site has now grown to over thirty pages and will continue to grow. David has started teaching me the HTML language and I have been continuing work on the site myself! I really enjoy working on the website it is truly a labor of love. Sharing my work and stories with everyone on the World Wide Web is a great deal of fun! I have also made some really great friends via my website!

Thank you David for being such a wonderful and supportive husband and also a very (After reading this my husband told me to add an extra VERY! Come on now sweetie i'm not that bad!) patient teacher!