Margaret Lindsay Holton

Margaret Lindsay Holton, (born April 4th, 1955) is a Canadian-born artist, author and filmmaker from Burlington, Ontario, Canada.

Lindsay was born at St.Josephs Hospital in Hamilton, Ontario. She attended primary school at Hillfield Strathallan College; then attended high school at M. M. Robinson High School in Burlington, Ontario, with a final high-school year at the Canadian Junior College in Lausanne, Switzerland, in 1973-1974. She graduated from the University of Toronto in 1978 with an Honors BA that included an Independent Study Year at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. Lindsay was awarded The President's Scholarship in the post-graduate Creative Writing Program at Humber College. While there, she understudied with 2x Giller Prize Winner, M. G. Vassanji.

A published poet, for 'On Top of Mount Nemo'(2002), and 'Bush Chord'(2006, with e-edition in 2012), samples of her poetry can be found on the University of Toronto's CanPoetry website, and reviewed on Brick Books Canada (2015).

She registered her artist business entity, MLH Productions, in 1978. And registered her artist's press, 'Acorn Press Canada', in Ontario, in 1997.

1980 - Designer of 'Lindsay'(TM) typeface, hand-drawn pencil templates supplied to Letraset England in a license for the dry transfer 'letter' market. One of the first typeface designs to be digitized using Peter Karow's innovative IKARUS system. The 'Lindsay' typeface was used in collaboration by both Letraset & URW of Hamburg, Germany as a 'demo font' to demonstrate IKARUS's capabilities in the early 1980s.(1) 'Lindsay' was also used as the defining font for the popular board game, Carcassone. Copyright to this typeface design resides with the artist, Margaret Lindsay Holton.

1984-86 Co-producer and director of experimental documentary with Jane Walker Manchee - 'In the Eye of the Hunter' 54 min, 16mm. Colour. Broadcast Rogers Cable 10, Toronto.

1986-2000 Award-winning designer of Canadian Fine Furniture, works in national public & international private collections, including the Royal Ontario Museum, (curio box & display cabinets), the Canadian Film Centre, (library reception), Stanley Ho (bedroom & diningroom suite), David C.W. MacDonald ('Temagami' pedestals, 'Wolf Settee Courting Bench' & 'Thee Mirror' - the 1989 Canadian National Exhibition Winner with Karl Luber, Senior Class, Marquetry & Design), Rosamond Ivey (bedroom suite), Elizabeth Hanson (children beds). All three beds were first published in 'Furniture: Architects & Designers Originals' by Carol Soucek King, MFA, PhD in 1994.(3) Architect Frank Gehry and Margaret Lindsay Holton were the only Canadians included in this internationally distributed repeatedly re-printed publication.

The 'Four Canadian Fireside Chairs' - the subject of her second novel,'The Gilded Beaver by Anonymous', (and subsequent winner of the Hamilton Arts Council Best Fiction Award of 1999) - now reside in a private collection in Toronto. Apprenticed with her father, cabinetmaker, Luther Janna Holton (1922-2002), sole-proprietor of Holton Fine Furniture of Hamilton Ontario Canada, before going into business on her own, under 'MLH Productions'.

In 2015, Holton's film & photographic works were shown in The Worlds's Shortest Film Fest, as part of the Niagara Film Festival, and at the Oakville Film Festival. A 14-minute documentary, 'Harold Dickert: Burlington Luthier', was shown at the Hamilton Music & Film Festival in September 2015. A 4-minute documentary, 'David Lambert: Fastest Knot-Tyer in Canada', was shown at the 10th Annual Hamilton Film Festival in November 2015. Her first narrative short, The Frozen Goose, premiered at the Art Gallery of Burlington, on September 11, 2016.(9)

Nominated for, and Winner of, K.W. Irmisch 'Arts Person of the Year in 2016', by Burlington's Best Committee, City of Burlington. (15)

Author of eleven book works, (poetry, prose, social history & photography), two CDs (music, spoken word) and classic Canadian WW1 film short, Frozen Goose:
1. Economic Sex under pen name 'Ali Janna Whyte', published with Coach House Press, 1984 ISBN 0-88910-279-1
2. Spirit of Toronto:1834-1984, published by Image Publishing, Hamilton, 1985 ISBN 978-0-9691362-0-0
3. The Gilded Beaver by Anonymous, published by Acorn Press Canada, Ontario, 1999 ISBN 978-0-9691362-2-4
4. On Top of Mount Nemo, published by Acorn Press Canada, Ontario, 2002 ISBN 978-0-9691362-3-1
5. Bush Chord, published by Acorn Press Canada, Ontario, 2006 ISBN 978-0-9691362-4-8
- - (2012 E-Edition, available via Amazon.ca - ISBN 978-0-9691362-8-6
6. Cloud Nine, published by Acorn Press Canada, Ontario, 2010 ISBN 978-0-9691362-5-5
7. Memory's Shadow, published by Acorn Press Canada, 2010 ISBN 978-0-9691362-6-2
8. Canadada: A Painter's Nature, published by Acorn Press Canada, 2011 ISBN 978-0-9691362-7-9
9. WHITE OUT: Photo Erasures, published by Acorn Press Canada, 2013 ISBN 978-0-9691362-9-3
10. Josephine's Garden, published by Acorn Press Canada, 2013 ISBN 978-0-9921272-0-6
11. Summer Haze, Musical CD, published by Acorn Press Canada, 2014 ISBN 978-0-9921272-1-3
12. The Frozen Goose, DVD, distributed by MLH Productions/Acorn Press Canada, written & directed by MLH - 2016 ISBN 978-0-9921272-3-7
13. The LAST FIVE YEARS: New Paintings by Canadian Artist, M.L.Holton, published by Acorn Press Canada (13) ISBN 978-0-9921272-4-4
14. CANADADA:TAKE TWO, Spoken Word & Musical CD, published by Acorn Press Canada, 2017 (14) ISBN 978-0-9921272-5-1

Visuals of early 'mlh' Canadian fine furniture, as well as samples of her 'naive-surreal-folk-abstract' oil paintings, with commentary about her philosophy about the making of Canadian material culture - including illustrations of her CD, DVD and book cover jackets, can be reviewed on her artist's blog - 'http://canadadaPHOTOGRAPHY.blogspot.com

Over the past decade, Lindsay, now a mid-career Canadian artist, has achieved additional national recognition for her pinhole photography, photo-collage photography and documentary shorts. The Homer Watson Public Art Gallery of Kitchener, Waterloo, Ontario and Art Gallery of Burlington, Ontario, have both exhibited her works. 'Memory's Shadow: Pinhole & Photo-Collage Photography', the exhibition & the companion hard-cover book with a foreword by Canadian documentary filmmaker Peter Wintonick O.C, were reviewed by Jeff Mahoney, Art Critic, Hamilton Spectator, in August 2010. (2) The Art Gallery of Burlington also published a companion monograph to the exhibition with an essay by Canadian author, David Macfarlane. (4) She continues to exhibit regularly throughout The Golden Horseshoe region of Ontario, Canada.