Two Birds with Plumes

Kenojuak Ashevak

Inuit artist Kenojuak Ashevak used crayon and felt pen over graphite to create this image of two plumed birds, done between 1991 and 1992. The work has a cataloging number in pencil on the verso: "CD-040-2219-abd-91/92-03-50.7 x 66." These numbers are added by the co-op and indicate:

"CD"= Cape Dorset, "040"= Drawing, "2219"= the catalogue number for the artist's work, "abd"= a - graphite, b - color pencil and d - felt pen, "91/92"= date done, "50.7 x 66"= size. This drawing was not stamped with the West Baffin Eskimo Co-op, an oversight.

"Birds are very important to the Inuit culture, for many different reasons. Many kinds of birds travel up north to the Arctic in the spring, then travel back south in the fall. According to Inuit scientists and hunters, there are over a hundred species of birds in the Arctic regions, of which nearly all are migratory.

There are only a few kinds of birds that spend the winter in the Arctic, including the raven, the snowy owl, and the rock ptarmigan. Inuit women and children hunt birds (mostly geese, ducks, and rock ptarmigan) and use them for food and materials.

Skins of larger birds are used as towels, to make slippers and (if there was a shortage of caribou) parkas as well."

(http://inuitevanh.blogspot.com/2014/04/birds-of-inuit.html)