Seeing Sharni Pootoogook’s lovely depiction of snow buntings floating through space helps us understand why these birds are sometimes called ‘snowflakes.’ Bunting flocks can number in the hundreds; the image beautifully mimics their swirling path through the Arctic air. Buntings’ feathers change colour with the seasons to better camouflage the birds on snow or summer tundra, but Sharni’s monochromatic rendition of the birds is clean and bold. This image featured on the cover of the 1964/65 Cape Dorset annual collection and confirms James Houston’s opening comment in the catalogue that the artists of Kinngait demonstrated “their continuing ability to make a strong, simple statement about life.”

References: Buntings was not illustrated within the pages of the 1964/5 Cape Dorset print catalogue. Rather, it was featured on the cover and in miniature on the first page of the publication.