Upper left: Ohito Ashoona is returning to Grand Marais Mar. 11 – 15 to teach soapstone carving classes. Above: A sample of Ashoona’s work.
North House Folk School announces the return of Inuit guest instructor Ohito Ashoona for two hands-on soapstone carving classes as part of Sivertson Art Gallery’s 10th annual Inuit Art Premiere.
Ashoona will teach Inuit Soapstone
Carving Traditions
(March 11-12) and Inuit Stone Sculpting — Movement On Ice
(March 14-15).
The soapstone carving classes complement Sivertson Art Gallery’s Inuit Art Premiere, an annual weekend event that features a variety of Inuit art and cultural traditions and activities including an Inuit film screening, traditional throat singing demonstrations, soapstone carving demos and presentations from a variety of Inuit artists.
Ashoona was the winner of the 2002 National Aboriginal Achievement Award. He has had a very close relationship with nature, having spent his formative years living not in a settlement or community, but at an outpost camp. He lived the traditional Inuit lifestyle. Although there were short visits to town for buying supplies, he lived and subsisted entirely off the land: fishing, and hunting for seals, walrus, whales, and caribou.
By his early teens, Ashoona’s destiny was set: he would be an artist like his father (Kaka Ashoona), his grandmother (Pitseolak Ashoona) and others who had gone before him. Unlike many of his peers, Ohito also became one of the best hunters in the community and a fully certified outfitting guide.
His love and respect for his culture, the environment and Arctic animals is apparent in his work. His works are creative and his themes optimistic. Life, however, was not always wonderful in the Arctic—it was a very cruel and harsh existence in one of the most inhospitable environments in the world. His ability to portray things so beautifully speaks of his nature and personality.
Registration for these courses is now open.
Call North House Folk School at 218- 387-9762 or register on-line at www. northhouse.org
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