While Pauta produced a wide variety of subjects over the course of his extended career, he is justifiably famous for his acrobatic depictions of “dancing bears.” If not the very first examples of this format, Pauta’s bears are certainly the quintessential expressions of the genre. Despite the tremendous demand for his work over many decades, Pauta managed to eschew the formulaic. One can tell from his work that Pauta loved and respected polar bears; he devoted his life’s work to doing justice to his polar muse:

I like to carve what I feel, not merely what I see. It is the feeling that goes along with whatever one is doing… I think and feel that the bear has a spirit to be put into the carving. [1]

This wonderful, youthful-looking bear is one of Pauta’s most abstract sculptures. The rhythmic placement of head and limbs on the overall triangular shape reminds us of a Thule culture toggling harpoon head. Fascinating.

1. Pauta Saila interviewed by George Swinton in Bernadette Driscoll, Uumajut: Animal Imagery in Inuit Art,  (Winnipeg Art Gallery, 1985), p. 46.