The hand-printed works on cloth initiative, a largely unrecorded area of the Kinngait craft program until recently, developed alongside the printmaking program in Cape Dorset in the late 1950s and 60s. Similar to the prints of that period, the textiles showcase a rich tapestry of inspirations. These include the traditional Inuit graphics, the tastes of the southern art market, the prevailing graphic design trends, and the nuances of Japanese block and stencil printing.

In this textile, we encounter a recurring motif in the artist’s works. According to Christine Lalonde, of her more than 8,000 drawings, more than half of Pitseolak’s drawings include birds as the primary subject [1]. While the artist has made no explicit indications on her repeated use of birds in her artworks, they may be interpreted as symbols of movement and the natural world. They can also represent the interconnectedness of life in the Arctic, where animals play a crucial role in survival. The intricate cross hatched lines on each of her five birds echo the design elements found in Pitseolak’s etchings and engravings, which were created at the encouragement of Terry Ryan in the early and mid-1960s, linking this particular textile to another era of artistic experimentation in Kinngait [2].

While this textile presents clearly representational elements, Pitseolak’s composition and graphic simplicity meld effortlessly with the printmaker’s design to exude a sense of breezy freedom, striking a captivating balance between orderly structure and unexpected rhythm, which culminates in a splendid overall pattern.