Alison Shields is an Assistant Teaching Professor in Art Education at the University of Victoria. She received a MFA at the University of Waterloo and is currently a PhD Candidate in the Department of Curriculum and Pedagogy at the University of British Columbia. She has exhibited her paintings and drawings in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver and has participated in artist residencies across Canada and the United States. She has received numerous awards for her work in Art Education, including most recently the Gordon and Marion Smith Prize in Art Education. Through her SSHRC-funded doctoral research, which has taken her on a cross-Canada journey visiting over 125 artists’ studios, Shields explores creative processes, painting as inquiry, and the relationship between thinking and making through studio work. Her painting practice similarly explores the intricacies of her own and other artists’ creative processes.