In Bird with a Fish, Lucy Qinnuayak offers viewers a realistic scene of Arctic wildlife while maintaining a degree of delight. The form of the bird is one that is obviously rooted in observation of the animal’s movements. The fowl plummets downward on the sheet, halting its downward motion to feed on a fish. Its brilliantly orange talons are arched as two parabolas that mimic the shape of its wings, which rush forward to slow its descent. While the study of the mannerisms of the bird and its prey are clear, the forms of the animals merely evoke the creatures without adherence to strict imitation. The feathers of the bird are illustrated as undulating curves and saw-toothed spikes that fold and flow into its body, which is animated from within by the tonality of the ink that the stencil process affords. Only its eyes are differentiated by use of a circular mask of un-inked paper. The captured fish is coloured in a single swath of orange, with its dorsal fin pierced by the razor sharp beak of the bird.

References: Bird with a Fish is reproduced in James Houston, Eskimo Prints, Barre, Massachusetts: Barre Publishers, 1967), p. 81. See the section on the artist in Odette Leroux, ed, Inuit Women Artists: Voices from Cape Dorset, (Hull, QC: Canadian Museum of Civilization, 1994), pp. 71-91.