Jessie Oonark is the most celebrated Baker Lake artist, a recognized genius in both the graphic and textile arts. Oonark's works range from small, intimate drawings to an immense textile hanging (373 x 601 cm), which hangs in the foyer of the National Arts Centre in Ottawa. Oonark's gift was her ability to fuse narrative, symbolic, and decorative elements into works that are simultaneously delightful, profound, and moving.

High Play is a marvelous example of this aspect of Oonark’s vision. It is also one of a very few prints by Oonark that is based on a small work on cloth by the artist rather than a drawing (two others are Figure in Striped Clothing and Magic Circle, both from 1971). While the work seems to simply illustrate people engaged in traditional Inuit games of strength, according to Jack Butler, an arts advisor in Baker Lake in the early 1970s, the image “refers to a kind of psychological, intellectual, soul travel”; apparently, the title was carefully chosen in discussion with Oonark. [1] These layers of meaning enrich even the seemingly most simple compositions by the artist. Fabulous.

1. Jack Butler quoted in Jean Blodgett and Marie Bouchard, Jessie Oonark: A Retrospective, (Winnipeg Art Gallery, 1986), p. 44. Note: the original textile is illustrated there as well.