After a fire in December 1977 destroyed the Sanavik co-operative equipment, the process of linocut printmaking was introduced by John Evans in order to accommodate the deadline for the release of the 1978 graphics collection. As a result, linocuts became a mainstay in the Qamani’tuaq print shop. A linoleum block, with its flat uneven surface, was ideally suited to the line effect produced by Ruth Qaulluaryuk in her original drawing. In this work, foliate designs, which recall lichen and flora depicted in embroidery in the artist’s works on cloth, sprout and vine between the animals. The effect is one that is impressive for its compressed yet undeniably dynamic energy.

References: For additional information on the 1977 fire and for an overview of graphic art production in Qamani’tuaq, see Marion Jackson et. al., Qamanittuaq: Where the River Widens: Drawings by Baker Lake Artists, (Guelph: Macdonald Stewart Art Centre, 1994), p. 37. According to Susan Gustavison, of the fifty-eight prints offered for review for the Canadian Eskimo Arts Council, only thirty-one were approved as they were considered the more inspired works of the offering. For the full account of the CEAC and 1980 Qamani’tuaq print collection, see Susan Gustavison, Arctic Expressions: Inuit Art and the Canadian Eskimo Arts Council 1961-1989, (Kleinburg: Ontario, 1994), p. 61-2. For embroidered works by the artist that feature the same vining flora, see First Arts, 5 December 2022, Lot 68. See also Qaulluaryuk’s Four Seasons on the Tundra series are illustrated in Bernadette Driscoll’s article “A Woman’s Vision, A Woman’s Voice: Inuit Textile Art from Arctic Canada”, Inuit Art Quarterly, (Vol 9, No. 2, Summer 1994), p. 9.