Born: November 18, 1965
Tonia was born in Manchester, England and is a dual citizen of this country and the United Kingdom.
She attended Holy Name Preparatory School in Port of Spain and then went on to Holy Name Convent in 1977. Between 1980 and 1987 she attended Middlesex Polytechnic in London and then Central St. Martin's School of Art and Design, Southampton Row, London.
She holds a Diploma in Foundation Art and Design BA (Hons) in Textile Design.
Between 1984 and 1986 she worked as a junior artist at Christensen and Belgrave in Port of Spain. In 1988 she did summer training as a Junior Designer for Jeffery Rogers PLC Great Titcherfield Street, London. By the next year she was a Full Time Sales Assistant at Jane Norman PLC Oxford Street, WI, and part time Sales Assistant for a younger line of clothing at Fenwicks of Bond Street London, WI.
In 1990 she became a Senior Sales Consultant, responsible for managing and merchandising a collection of designer clothes and accessories at Dickins and Jones, Regent Street, London WI.
Tonia returned to Trinidad and in 1993 taught art at the YTEPP (Youth Training and Employment Partnership Program) centre in Woodbrook and then taught art and craft at Holy Name Convent Secondary School.
Among her other accomplishments, Tonia supplied Christmas Cards to shops and companies and has designed a special collection of cards for a locally based French owned music company. She has freelanced for Bilmor, the Palm Tree Village Hotel; done uniform designs for the West Indian Gas Company and was commissioned to produce a collection of small collages for retail purposes and shop decorating. Shewas commissioned by the Hilton Hotel in Tobago to do two story-telling collages about several different animals in Tobago. She has also done a stamp design for the Japanese Ministry of Post and Communications. For this she received the Merit Prize out of 21,900 people.
Artist's Statement
Art and the creation of art is one of the most spiritual experiences. To be able to create a work of art that will stay behind while we go on is a huge commitment and responsibility. It is one of the legacies of the human experience. I have chosen to work in collage because it enables me to express passionately how I feel about Trinidad and Tobago, which is a virtual collage of cultures, the juxtapositioning of these differing elements always creating new and vibrant images. To be able to take these images, extract new meanings out of old forms and change them into unexpected new imagery is what I perceive as the basis of the emerging contemporary Caribbean culture - the essence of my work in collage.
