Art for the masses

PATRICIA D’SOUZA

There’s a faint sound coming from the white canvas tent set up in front of the Nunavut Arctic College residence in Iqaluit. Inside, a carver kneels on the ground sanding a piece of soapstone.

Actually, there are carvers scattered around the entrance and even under the building. This is definitely the place.

About 70 artists and instructors have gathered in Iqaluit for the Nunavut Arts Festival May 2 to 9. This year’s festival is the fourth annual event hosted by the Nunavut Arts and Crafts Association, a non-profit society of artists.

The event gives artists from across Nunavut the opportunity to sell their work, interact with other artists and attend workshops on marketing or exporting to the United States.

But it also gives artists the opportunity to draw the public into their work. Instead of simply interpreting meaning from an image or sculpture, members of the public and even other artists have had the chance this week to become part of the process – to learn the mysteries of making fish-skin dolls and spinning muskox underfur.

On Sunday, a handful of kids made caribou bone pendants with the help of Karen Yip a jewelry from Baker Lake. The kids, from knee-high to tall as any grown up, sanded the round bone discs, and hammered a design onto a metal plate that Yip riveted to the face of the disc.

The hammering was definitely the part that appealed to the kids, who pounded away with abandon. They were less interested in the detail work, and prattled on about kid stuff as Yip drilled tiny holes in the material. But they still watched intently as the pendants came to life.

On Tuesday, Thomas Iksiraq of Baker Lake led two artists in a demonstration of woodblock printing.

Diane Boudreau of Yellowknife usually paints insects, but traded in her paintbrush for a sharp knife to carve one into a dinner plate-sized piece of plywood.

Saroomie Manik of Resolute Bay spends her time either knitting, crocheting, beading, tufting, carving, painting, sewing or minding her children. She drew a detailed image of her hand onto her plywood block.

“Nobody likes mosquitos,” Boudreau said, sliding her wood-cutting tool along her pencil lines.

“They have too many legs,” she added, giving her hand a rest.

“I ate them when I was a kid,” Manik said with a smile. “They’re sweet.”

On Wednesday, NACA members were to attend the organization’s annual general meeting and vote for new regional board members.

And on Friday, it was back home, until next year, when there will be a different array of skills to learn.