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magazine / ma05
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March/April 2005 issue |
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MOSAIC
Art in the bones
Photography by Valerie Burton
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| Photography by Valerie burton
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On the cobbled shore of Victoria Island lies the hamlet of Holman, N.W.T., population 398.
Despite its size and location, 925 kilometres by air north of Yellowknife, Holman has developed
an international reputation for printmaking over the past four decades. Artists such as Mary
Okheena are passing on their knowledge of this art form, which has become a main source of
income in a community otherwise dependent on trapping, hunting, sealing and some oil-and-gas
exploration.
Printmaking was introduced to Holman by the late Rev. Henri Tardy, an Oblate priest who
settled there in 1949. In the early 1960s, he helped form a co-operative that sells local
artists’ prints and other art to clients around the world. Tardy taught Okheena how to make
waxed-paper stencils. A mother of five, Okheena, whose work is exhibited in galleries across
Canada and the United States, says she is largely inspired by children and the legends her
parents told her. She teaches her art at the school, where she works as an educational assistant.
Holman is one of a number of Northern communities where art supplements earnings in a limited
economy. For Inuvik carver William Gruben, it means "you don’t have to leave here to
be successful."
Monique Roy-Sole
For the rest of this story, visit your local newsstand or go to our store to buy this issue.
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