Summer Camp Scene

Pitseolak Ashoona

The West Baffin Eskimo Cooperative in Cape Dorset, Canada was a printmaking collective founded by Canadian artist James A. Houston (1921-2005) in response to a question by Inuit artist Oshowetuk about how cigarette packs could all have the same image. Houston began teaching printmaking and went to Japan in 1958 to learn relief printmaking.

In Cape Dorset stone was the readily available material and the artists began cutting relief images into the stone, which were called "Stone-cuts."

This is an example of an early "stone cut", with a transferred image and printed in relief from carved stone. Like a woodcut, the image that is to be printed is raised above the plane, the non printing areas having been cut away.

Pitseolak Ashoona was one of the early Cape Dorset printmakers, and one of the most prolific, despite having given birth to 17 children.

Pitseolak tended to put an image to many of the legends and stories she had learned from her father, many portraying visions and supernatural occurrences while others portrayed everyday Inuit life, however this image, using colors separated by white lines, depicts Inuit people engaging in summer activities as a group.