Honoring an artist

One wonderful thing that I have gained from taking art classes is the acquisition of new friends. Since the pandemic began, these friends are necessarily made online, not in person, but that just gives more scope—of the women with whom I have bonded from Deb Weiers's Wonky Friends class, one lives in Virginia, another in Texas, one in Alberta, Canada, and the farthest away in Auckland, New Zealand.

A related circumstance about which I am thrilled is that they are all, like I am, interested in collecting artwork they admire, and they have all been open to trading, so that I am accumulating a nice little gallery of their paintings, and they of mine and each other's.

Recently, the one in Canada not only agreed to trade but said she would make a custom painting designed with me in mind, rather than bartering existing artwork. The painting came in the mail on February 8th, and is so wonderful—a sort of riff on my "church lady" paintings, with the most astonished look on her face. I decided my only possible response was to gift back something relevant, instead of picking something out of my "pile."

I therefore went exploring amongst the women writers, artists, and leaders of Canada, since she expressed a preference for a woman's portrait, someone who motivates other women to be their best. I discovered Inuit artist Pitseolak Ashoona, and was immediately charmed by both her image and her story.

Pitseolak was born in 1904 and grew up traditionally, in a "skin tent" in the Hudson Straits and on Baffin Island. She marveled, when she was old, that she started there and yet lived to see men walk on the moon. She gave birth to 17 children, although she raised only six of them herself, losing some to childbirth and adopting out the rest to other members of her tribe, as was the custom in their communal nomadic existence. After her husband died unexpectedly at age 40, she didn't remarry as most women of her tribe would have rushed to do; instead, while raising her four remaining children, she looked around for something to engage her creativity and absorb her grief.

There was a program initiated at Cape Dorset by the Department of Northern Affairs and National Resources as a way for Inuit to earn money; Pitseolak initially embroidered goods for sale, but then turned to drawing and making prints about "the old Eskimo ways." She loved the painstaking making of images, and ultimately became both a popular and well known artist in Canada. She was featured on a postage stamp in 1993 in honor of International Woman's Day. She inspired several of her children and grandchildren to also become artists. She died in 1983, drawing until the end.

Here she is, with images mimicking her style peeking out from behind her head. "Pitseolak Ashoona"—Pencil, Uniball Vision pen, Daler Rowney inks, India ink, on 140-lb. Fluid coldpress watercolor paper, approximately 7x10 inches.