Pitseolak: Pictures Out of My Life [Paperback]

Dorothy Harley Eber (Author), Pitseolak (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 2003

"Pitseolak: Pictures Out of My Life" is an illustrated oral biography created from recorded interviews by Dorothy Harley Eber in 1970. In these interviews, and through her drawings and prints, Pitseolak makes what Inuit call "the old way" come alive, reflecting on life on the land, its pleasure and trials. Her story later became an NFB animated documentary. This new edition, appearing more than thirty years after the first, contains additional drawings and prints by Pitseolak Ashoona and a new introduction by Eber that provides more information about the artist and the circumstances under which her groundbreaking oral biography came about.Pitseolak Ashoona, who died in 1983, was known for lively prints and drawings showing "the things we did long ago before there were many white men" and for imaginative renderings of spirits and monsters. She began creating prints in the late 1950s after James Houston started printmaking experiments at Cape Dorset, creating several thousand images of traditional Inuit life. Pitseolak Ashoona was elected a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts in 1974 and was also a member of the Order of Canada.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Pitseolak: Pictures Out of My Life should not be dismissed as a mere picture book. In its own way, it is a small treasure. Christian Science Monitor /// "Its distinctions are manifold ...it is the story of an articulate artist, an account of one who has spanned a gulf in culture change, an ethnographic narrative of an unusual people and an album of graphic works of acclaimed excellence." Scientific American /// "Rarely can a book fuse all the elements of a society: the private vision and the public tradition, the past and the present, the personal life and the communal pattern. Pitseolak:Pictures Out of MyLlife achieves all this in an astonishing and delightful way." John Espey, Westways

Product Details

• Paperback: 120 pages
• Publisher: McGill-Queen's University Press; 2 edition (October 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0773525726
• ISBN-13: 978-0773525726
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 8.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,792,029 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Pitseolak: Pictures out of My Life, September 6, 2004

By 

Doris McCann (Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pitseolak: Pictures Out of My Life (Paperback)

If you are interested in trying to understand the Inuit sensibility this is a great read. Pitseolak became an artist, drawing pictures of her life, when she was in her fifties, gaining international recognition.

The drawings and prints in this book embody joy and energy and fancy. The interviews were done when she was in her sixties. Pitseolak describes an idylic world despite a harsh and bone-tiring camp life and the untimely loss of so many loved ones. Though she leaves out the dark side this holds true to how she interprets her world. She is charmingly frank within this world view.

Though her second or third cousin, Peter Pitseolak's account, is more factual (I think), as (I think) her drawings are, the interviews are remarkable.

Dorothy Harley Eber's preface provides additional information and insights.Her work in interviewing Pitseolak is also an interesting study.

In the end, even though in her life Pitseolak worked collectively with her kinsfolk in camps and in the Cape Dorset print shop, and even though our interest as readers may be about Inuit culture, her personality and her individuality sparkle in a universal way.