Matt's painting.

Brady, sketching out his picture.

Mr. Kopp, showing off his Inukshuk print.

Nancy printing her Inukshuk.

Inuit Print Making

by Matt

Whoever stated that hardships make a man a better artist was correct in the case of northern art. In this small isolated community where art supplies are hard to come by beautiful things are created. One of my favorites art mediums of the north is printmaking. This is a painting technique in which, by using stencils an artist can make a beautiful scene and then repeat it almost exactly the same. A lot of the InuitÕs mythology, beliefs and good times in the north find their way on to the printmakers paper. They are a beautiful and creative way of portraying the past and present.

One community in particular, Holman Island, is making a mark in the art world with their printmaking reputation.

To make prints, students came up with a good, simple Inuit image which they sketched on paper.

Next, students used exacto knives to cut out their stencils from sheets of acetate.

Then, they determined their colour schemes and used paint to brush in their stencils.

The idea with print making is that you make numerous pieces or prints that are exact. The students on the exchange were excited just to create one print. Even so, their prints echoed the desire to retain Inuit culture within the visual medium.

Artists All!

Holly, cutting acetate for the print.

As you can see, the common images included:

Inukshuk

Bears

Inuit figures

Caribou

and other land scenes.

Matt painting his Inuit print.

Courtney, cutting out her stencil.

Scott's print in progress.