Local art

It really is appalling easy to spend money in Iqaluit on arts related items. Saturday night we went out to a birthday party for one of Cathy's co-workers. There was about 30 of us in a room and through the three hour long meal (let us just say not the quickest service we've had since moving here), Inuit artists would come into the room and show off their wares.

And it's almost always stunningly lovely stuff. One guy bought a carved caribou antler featuring a hunter and Senda. That was about $200. A stuffed owl (like a teddy bear), except instead of fabric it was made with seal fur. That was $80. A doll of an Inuit woman in full amounti made of seal skin that was about 18 inches tall went for $90. A little carved stone narwhale for $60.

I'm in the market for something for my dad. A beautiful walrus sculpture came through the room. It was originally $500, but the woman selling it went down to $380. It was very, very tempting, but I have a month to find something for dad before Cathy goes home, so I'm hoping to find something a touch less expensive.

I just hope I don't regret passing that one up. It was beautiful. It was so nice that there was a real possibility that dad wouldn't have gotten it anyway.

The night before that, we popped down to the Nunatta Sunakkutaangit Museum. It's quite close to our apartment and they had the opening of the Arctic College Jewellery and Metalworking Exhibition. Eight artists displaying some of the items they've worked on the past year. Which also happened to be for sale.

It's a nice little museum (a real one, unlike the ones I cited last week), that also happens to sell artwork and sculptures by local artists. It's perhaps the most affordable place in Iqaluit to buy artwork.

We arrived a little late and a surprising amount of the work was already spoken for. However, Cathy managed to grab a nice bracelet. I don't have a real good picture of it because it wasn't the best lighting, even with me pulling out a bunch of tricks with the camera. But here's the best picture I have.



And just to give you an idea, here are a few other pictures of some of the pieces that were on display. They kindly gave me permission to take photos.