Jessie Oonark began drawing in 1958 or '59, soon after relocating to Qamani’tuaq, when she remarked to the local schoolteacher that she could surely draw better than his students. A sketchbook of her early drawings was sent to Kinngait, resulting in three “Una” images produced as stonecuts in the 1960 and 1961 Cape Dorset print collections (see Lot 15). Though Qamani’tuaq experimented with printmaking in 1965-66 (see lot 72), the program only took hold in 1970 with Oonark’s Woman featured on the catalogue cover. Three Women may have been produced soon after the experimental series ended.

Oonark’s skill as a seamstress is evident in her magnificent textile compositions, and her knowledge and love of clothing design became an important aspect of her prints and drawings. The present drawing of Three Women, drawn a few years before the aforementioned Woman, features a striking central figure flanked by two smaller figures in profile. The central figure bears prominent tunniit (facial tattoos), unlike the flanking figures, leading one to wonder if the image depicts a mother and daughters.

MBL

References: For a fuller account of the schoolteacher story, see First Arts, December 2020, Lot 52).