Love. This is a colored pencil drawing by Mary Ayaq Anowtalik (born 1938; Inuk, based in Arviat, Nunavut, Canada), best known for her stone sculptures--she began carving in the 1950s--as well as, especially more recently, her drawings. This drawing bears a strong relationship to her sculptures, which she has described as representing the closeness of Inuit family and relatives, and specifically portraying "the intimacy of our former life at Ennadia Lake," where Anowtalik was born and lived as a child, and from which she and her family were forcibly relocated by the Canadian government. I really can't imagine a clearer or truer feeling portrayal of familial closeness and connection and interdependence than in this drawing--everyone bundled together in and under one big blue cloak, animal too! I especially love trio of faces in profile stacked vertically on each side, looking outward as if protecting all the others, while simultaneously fortified through their (smiling) presences. With marvelous clarity, and great charm.
Anowtalik's work has been widely exhibited and is included in the collections of the Winnipeg Art Gallery, Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, University of Saskatchewan, and University of British Columbia Museum of Anthropology among others.
13 7/16" x 10 7/8" and in good condition, on fairly light weight bright white paper. A few smudges to the paper as evident, not detracting. Signed at lower left.
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