New Brunswick’s Inuk artist-in-exile

Smooth, sculpted lines in alabaster that catch the essence of a beluga’s shape are typical of carvings by Alec Lawson Tuckatuck, 30.

Alec is an Inuit carver who works with the added challenge of not living in the Arctic.

He works out of a concrete-floored rental storage unit – the kind that mobile southerners lease to store their belongings – near his home in Fredericton, New Brunswick.

Like his fellow Inuit carvers in the North, Alec’s workshop is equipped with a variety of power tools and strewn pieces of antler, ivory and stone. But Alec says he has a tough time getting good stone to work with in the South.

Carving is in Alec’s blood: his great aunt and uncle were the late Lucy and Noah Meeko and his late grandfather, Sarowilly Ammittu, and his late great-uncle, Davidialuk Ammittu, are also renowned artists from Nunavik.

“I had a passion to pursue this. This is what I want to do. To even think about working for someone else, it doesn’t appeal to me anymore,” Alec says.

Originally from Kuujjuaraapik, Alec sells to galleries in Canada and in the United States, on consignment and through his web site.

Alec’s main market is on the internet at www.inuitstonecarving.com, where visitors can see his pieces, which depict animals and the Inuit way of life.

“The web site is almost like a portfolio. Now, you can just pull out your business card and say ‘hey, have a look if you’re interested,'” Alec says.

There have been more than 165,000 hits on his web site, and, through the site, Alec has built an email list of more than 200 addresses. When he finishes a piece, he first emails a picture of it to these potential clients.

And this way of doing business is working: Alec says he’s making money – in one month alone he earned $14,000 due to a big sale.

“My sales are really picking up,” he says.

Alec says he usually spends about a week or two on each piece, and works only on one piece at a time.

And although he’s far away from the North, Alec says his inspiration still comes from the land and a desire to preserve traditions.

“My artwork is a means of cultural affirmation, it allows me to express what we need to keep and remember, what we need to preserve and practice, what is important to our culture and what people need to see,” he says on his web site.

Alec was born in Fort George (now the community of Chisasibi) on March 14, 1976 and raised in Kuujjuaraapik.

He started watching his grandfather, Sarowilly, carve when he was very young.

“My grandfather was always carving. He would be in the shack, and I would always be around him. I’d observe him, and, after a while, he started to give me a stone to play with. He would always tell me to imagine the animals in the stone,” Alec says.

Alec’s first work, carved at age seven, was of a seal lying down on its side. He says he still has it.

After his grandfather died, the young Alec continued to watch and observed his sauniq, Alec Tucktatuck, carving, and would often work beside him making his own carvings. Alec’s mother, Louisa Tuckatuck, is also an artist, specializing in wall hangings.

Alec continued carving as a child until his family moved to Chatham, New Brunswick when he was 11. Without the tools or materials he had access to in Kuujjuaraapik, he stopped carving.

Alec, whose father is long-time northern teacher Peter Macdonald, became involved in other activities, such as hockey and baseball. He played junior hockey at a Tier 2 level for an all-native hockey team in Saskatchewan called the Lebret Eagles.

After graduating from high school in Chatham, Alec went on to the University of New Brunswick, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Physical Education degree.

Alec was finally able to return to Nunavik after completing his degree. In 2000 he moved to Kuujjuaq, where he was able to get back to his roots.

“I thought I would like to start carving again,” Alec says. “When I started carving again, I really, really enjoyed it.”

Alec says he hopes sometime to return north when his girlfriend, who has been ill, recovers completely.

“As soon as it gets possible, we’ll be there,” he says.

Meanwhile, Alec says he’s never short of ideas for his carvings.

“The stone tells me what to do,” he says. “Even when I have an idea, it’s ultimately the stone which is going to dictate exactly what it wants to be. It never fails.”