Customer Reviews

Pitseolak: Pictures Out of My Life

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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.