Born and raised in Harlem, McCannon emerged as a self-taught artist and young mother amid the civil rights movement and the rise of feminist art. She became a leading figure in an alternative African American art ecosystem, co-founding the Weusi collective and Where We At: Black Women Artists, the first collective dedicated to African American women artists. Informally trained by Harlem Renaissance artists such as Jacob Lawrence and Charles Alston, McCannon later turned to quilting, drawing on family traditions of sewing and crochet. Her mixed-media paintings, quilts, and works on paper centre the lives of women—iconic figures, unsung heroines, and members of her Harlem community. By merging fine art with practices historically dismissed as “women’s work,” McCannon forged a groundbreaking practice whose influence continues to resonate across generations.