Pauloosie Karpik remembered being one of the early visitors to the Hudson’s Bay Company post established at Pangnirtung in 1921. He moved to the fledgling community early and took part in the last years of whaling in the region. Karpik began carving as early as the 1950s and enjoyed carving stone and especially whale bone once it came into wider use in the late 1960s. A talented sculptor, he is perhaps now best remembered for the mostly stencil prints made from his charming pencil drawings that reflect happy memories from his early life. Embracing Men is a touching work that beautifully illustrates the joyous reunion of two men, perhaps brothers or a father and son, or two old friends, and wonderfully captures the spirit of an older time.

References: Some of Pauloosie Karpik’s reminiscences and stories are published in Stuart Hodgson, Stories from Pangnirtung, (Edmonton: Hurtig, 1976). See the article by H.G. Jones, “Pauloosie Karpik’s First Drawings” in Inuit Art Quarterly, (Vol. 6, No. 3, Summer 1991), pp. 30-33. The artist’s drawings were translated into eighteen Pangnirtung prints: four in 1976, and the rest between 1984 and 1988, the year of his death.