This work bears neither signature nor title, yet we recognize a woman, and we know she is contemplating the carving of an owl. Her face is broad and contemplative, each feature firmly incised, the eyes set with intention, the mouth shaped in concentration. She does not look outward but inward, focused on a form not yet realized. Behind her, or perhaps within her, the owl begins to take shape. Thought and creation are not separate here; they are carved from the same stone, emerging as one.

Our attribution is based on a known work by the artist that shows a similar treatment of the owl’s eyes and beak: Sculpture/Inuit: Masterworks of the Canadian Arctic, Canadian Eskimo Arts Council (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1971), fig. 171.