Pitseolak, Ashoona, COMPOSITION (SEA GRASS CREATURES), 1974/75, Acrylic paint on wood, 16 x 20 in.
The occasion of the book launch for the revised edition of Pitseolak: Pictures Out of My Life provides the perfect opportunity to revisit the oeuvre of one of the most talented, and beloved, of contemporary Inuit artists.
Born in 1907/8, Pitseolak Ashoona’s experience of life was similar to many of those of her generation. Her earlier lifestyle in the traditional Inuit migratory culture changed as she and her contemporaries settled into the growing community of Cape Dorset. What had been her reality became memories – memories which, for the last two decades of her life, she captured on paper.
The graphite drawings in this exhibition attest to her inherent skill as a graphic artist; new to the concept of drawing, she immediately filled these sheets with confident images of fanciful creatures, transformations and human figures. As the decade of the 1960’s progressed, Pitseolak began to concentrate more on images of traditional life. The lyrical flow of form and content in her early pencil drawings soon gave way to the exuberance of colour afforded by new media, including crayons, coloured pencils and pentel.
This first decade of art making culminated in the interviews with Dorothy Harley Eber and the book, Pitseolak: Pictures Out of My Life. Through the summer of 1970, Pitseolak spoke of her early life, making vibrant pentel drawings to reflect those past days. Many of these drawings are featured in this exhibition. To see them is to be enchanted by colour, by form, and by content. Men and women go about their daily activities but they are drawn with such joy that one is left with a longing for what was so obviously a happy childhood and fulfilling life on the land. The strokes made by the artist also provide an important, and lively, record of the sights, sounds, activities and beliefs of Inuit life in the early to mid-nineteenth century.
Through the following decade and until her death in 1983, Pitseolak continued to draw, and to work with new media. A senior Canada Council Arts Grant in 1975 sparked experimentation in a new medium – acrylic paint on canvas. Initially, she approached painting like drawing, outlining in pencil and then filling in with colour. As she gradually adapted to the nuances of the medium, she began layering down bold colours side by side to achieve her vivid effect. Pitseolak pursued acrylics for a period of time but eventually returned to drawing for a practical reason: lack of space in her home studio – her bedroom!
From painting to drawing to prints, Pitseolak’s artistic legacy celebrates her culture and her own life. Her joy in creating this legacy echoes in the work, and her words in Pitseolak: Pictures Out of My Life: “I am going to keep on doing them until they tell me to stop. If no one tells me to stop, I shall make them as long as I am well. If I can, I’ll make them even after I am dead.”
To view available artworks by Pitseolak Ashoona, click here.