A respected elder, Josephie Pootoogook was enlisted by James Houston to help build local support for Kinngait's budding printmaking experiments. Among the first prints produced in the nascent program was this striking image, Joyfully I See Ten Caribou. Printed by Pootoogook’s son, Kananginak and Osuitok Ipeelee, the work masterfully blends stencil and linocut techniques. The warm purple-grey stenciled areas define the man’s parka, framing the dense black linocut elements that bring the hunter’s friendly and confident face to life. His smiling eyes and toothy grin convey his joy, while the emphatic gesture of his splayed hands – signaling to fellow hunters that he has spotted caribou – is depicted in remarkable detail. Kananginak's sensitive stencil technique beautifully contrasts with the crisp details of the man’s fingers and palms, noteworthy for their almost tactile realism. Their finely carved lines capture the natural creases brought on by age and hard work.

References: This image has been widely reproduced including in: James Houston, Eskimo Prints, (Don Mills, ON: Longman Canada Ltd., 1971) p. 82 p. 33; pl. 195, unpaginated; Dorothy Eber, “Looking for the Artists of Dorset in Eskimo Art,” Canadian Forum, vol. 52 (July/August 1972), p. 12-16. Carol Finley, Art of the Far North: Inuit Sculpture, Drawing, and Printmaking, (Minneapolis, MN: Lerner Publications Company, 1998), p. 49, fig. 18, as “Kananginak Pootoogook” [sic]; Leslie Boyd Ryan, Cape Dorset Prints: A Retrospective (Pomegranate, 2007) p. 76, and in the National Museum of Man travelling exhibition catalogue The Inuit Print (NMM, 1977) p. 54. Also illustrated (along with Pootoogook’s original drawing) in Christine Lalonde and Leslie Boyd Ryan, Uuturautiit: Cape Dorset Celebrates 50 Years of Printmaking, exh. cat., (Ottawa: National Gallery of Canada, 2009), p. 37, cat. 37.