Jessie Oonark began making drawings and sewn items for sale shortly after her arrival in Baker Lake in 1958. She sold her first small “hangings” to the Baker Lake crafts officer Gabe Gély as early as 1963 and was selling appliqué works on cloth regularly by the mid 1960s. Few early examples are published in museum catalogues or books, however. Oonark’s early works on cloth are relatively small and all are narrative, depicting mostly hunting and camp scenes. However, Oonark enjoyed experimenting with composition, subject matter, appliqué, embroidery, and stitching, so these works are quite varied in style and execution.

This gorgeous work on cloth is the last of three purchased in Baker Lake by Vivian Julien, a schoolteacher who lived and worked in Baker Lake in the mid 1960s, and offered at First Arts (see First Arts, July 2021, Lots 15 and 81). These three masterpieces are proof of Oonark’s experimental spirit and her growing confidence as a maker of iconic images. It was only in 1967-68 that she would devote greater efforts to drawing, and only after 1970 that her career as a textile and graphic artist would come into full bloom.

Larger than the other two examples, this work is likewise rich with detail and reveals Oonark’s playful use of colours, her interest in clothing design, and her sensitive depiction of Arctic animals. Contrasting beautifully against the deep indigo blue stroud background, the appliqué figures are cut from mostly yellow and red, touches of brown, and tiny hints of ivory and black felt. The lovely touches of embroidery play a somewhat lesser role in this work than we have seen in other examples, although one of the most charming visual surprises in this work is the elaborate design of the legging pouch on the woman at the far right. The image is beautifully framed with a double border, first in felt and then in delicate stitchery.

At this stage of her life in Baker Lake, Oonark’s thoughts were still focused on remembering her former life on the land. This work on cloth comprises four separate scenes in three loose tiers: an igloo and dog sledding at the top; a bear hunt in the centre; and hunting caribou by kayak below. We love the way that the various diagonals in the positioning of Oonark’s animals is echoed by the hunters’ spears. This device may have been intuitive rather than intentional, but the result is the same; it prevents the overall image from becoming too stratified, but also unifies the work structurally and even conceptually – after all, all aspects of traditional life were part of a larger whole. Oonark’s sense of playful design is also evident in the way she changes up the colour patterns of yellow and red and adds splashes of other felt colours seemingly at random. Both the human and the animal figures are crisply cut and meticulously sewn; there is a real elegance in both the individual figures and their placement in the scene. This work on cloth is a charming, beautifully executed delight.

References: See First Arts Auction, July 2021, Lots 15 and 81 for two fine works on cloth from the same collection, created within a year or two of this stunning work. For a somewhat later example see Ingo Hessel, Arctic Spirit: Inuit Art from the Albrecht Collection at the Heard Museum, (Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre / Phoenix: Heard Museum, 2006), cat. 140. First Arts Auction, May 2019 (Lot 24) illustrates a masterpiece from c. 1970 that shows Oonark’s progression to more structured and symbolic works. For other important works on cloth by Oonark see First Arts Auction, Dec. 2020, Lot 39; and Walker’s Auctions, May 2018, Lot 82, and Nov. 2016, Lot 67. See Jean Blodgett and Marie Bouchard, Jessie Oonark: A Retrospective, (Winnipeg: Winnipeg Art Gallery, 1986) for an overview of Oonark’s life and career in both textile and graphic art.