This drawing was made as Shuvinai’s style was evolving from small, detailed landscapes to larger scale compositions featuring random elements. The swirling lines of the tundra grass provide a beautifully textured backdrop for broken eggshells and a clock sporting legs, arms and ears. Eggs and nests had been a recurring theme at the time, but this grouping is unique. The eggshells seem to protectively encircle the strange baby that has been hatched while two heart-shaped rocks appear above them. This is an important drawing as it indicates the enigmatic subject matter which would become the signature style of the artist.

References: For an overview of the artist’s life and work, see Nancy G. Campbell, Shuvinai Ashoona: Life & Work, (Toronto: Art Canada Institute, 2019). See also Jean Blodgett, et al., Three Women, Three Generations: Drawings by Pitseolak Ashoona, Napatchie Pootoogook and Shuvinai Ashoona, (Kleinberg, ON: McMichael Canadian Art Collection, 1999), and Sandra Dyck, Shuvinai Ashoona: Drawings, (Ottawa: Carleton University Art Gallery, 2012). For other examples of drawings by the artist, see Gaëtane Verna, Shuvinai Ashoona: Mapping Worlds, (Toronto: Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery, 2021), and Gerald McMaster, ed., Inuit Modern: The Samuel and Esther Sarick Collection, (Toronto: Art Gallery of Ontario, 2010), pp. 200-203. See also First Arts, 4 Dec. 2023, Lots 13 and 58; 10 June 2024, Lot 61; and 2 Dec. 2024, Lot 30.