A seminal work in the realm of Kinngait printmaking, Bird Dream Forewarning Blizzards is notable for being the first print to have a background colour applied with a brayer before the composition itself was printed. This innovative technique gave birth to a backdrop that pulsates with an earthy red, imbuing the scene with a mottled texture that succinctly evokes the enigmatic realm of a shamanistic vision. Printer Kingwatsiak's application of saturated black ink atop the coloured ground captures the hauntingly gaunt image of a human figure that may represent the artist, Tudlik, or, more likely, a shaman immersed in a trance-induced vision of a formidable bird spirit. Shamans, revered for their supernatural powers, are believed to have the ability to perceive themselves in skeletal or transparent forms, transcending the physical plane. A key facet of their role involved forecasting or even exerting influence over the weather. Beside the man is the commanding presence of a spirit bird, a hybrid that melds human and bear traits, symbolizing the shaman's connection with powerful spiritual entities.

1. Christine Lalonde suggests that the print might be stonecut and linocut, see Christine Lalonde and Leslie Boyd Ryan, Uuturautiit: Cape Dorset 1959-2009, (Ottawa: NGC, 2009), cat. 5; James Houston identified the print as a stonecut and sealskin stencil in his article "Eskimo Graphic Art" in Canadian Art, (Jan. 1960), p. 14.

References: This image has been reproduced in numerous publications including the National Museum of Man international touring exhibition catalogue The Inuit Print, (Ottawa: NMM, 1977) cat. 4; Ernst Roch ed., Arts of the Eskimo: Prints, (Montreal/Toronto: Signum/Oxford, 1974), p. 29; Norman Vorano, Inuit Prints: Japanese Inspiration, (Canadian Museum of Civilization, 2011), fig. 32.