Allison Barclay 

I'm a synaesthetic tetrachromat, multimedia, and multidisciplinary professional artist, designer, and teacher. I attended the Victoria College of Art in British Columbia under the tutelage of James Gordaneer RCA. He, in turn, had been mentored by Jock MacDonald RCA. 

I earned my MA in Art and Science at Central Saint Martin’s, University of the Arts London, in 2018.  My work fusing art and science has its roots in my own personal experience and biology.  I’m a sound-colour synaesthete with tetrachromatic (four-coned) colour perception.  Working in multiple media as a professional artist and designer, I create paintings and use scientific imaging embodying both the representational and the images I ‘see’ in three-dimensional space when I hear sound.  This is further enhanced by reflecting my art through the prism of my tetrachromatic vision palette. 

Having worked in and taught gemmology, design, and manuscript restoration, I also use my knowledge of natural materials, their colour, textures, and physical properties to layer my work bringing additional depth and feeling. 

I hail from a family of artists, musicians, and scientists.  I love to understand the universe, as much as possible, which includes physics, and the inner embodied world, which includes biology.  I’m a relentlessly curious person never tiring of making sense of things. I’ve been fortunate to have the opportunity to draw together all the strands of my various skills and interests combining art and science in my work. For whilst many consider these disciplines to be worlds apart, they are in fact lovers.