Name: TVO Arts, Kenojuak Ashevak, The Enchanted Owl
Uploaded: 2022-01-22
Duration: 8 min 2 s
Description: Filtering the Arctic world through her vivid imagination, Kenojuak Ashevak and The Enchanted Owl helped Inuit printmaking take off.

Learn how to decode Canadian art | TVO Arts

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I like to make people happy and everything happy. I am the light of happiness and I am a dancing owl.”

Why do you think the artist chose to represent an owl? 

Filtering the Arctic world through her vivid imagination, Kenojuak Ashevak and The Enchanted Owl helped Inuit printmaking take off.

TVO Arts, Kenojuak Ashevak, The Enchanted Owl

00:00
(gentle music)
00:06
NARRATOR: Behind one of Canada's best known artworks
00:09
is a story of human creativity and survival.
00:13
This is The Enchanted Owl.
00:15
It was created by Kenojuak Ashevak in 1960.
00:20
Maybe you've seen it before?
00:22
It's become a symbol of Canadian art,
00:24
and it was even on a postage stamp in 1970.
00:28
The Enchanted Owl is, perhaps,
00:29
the most famous work of Inuit art,
00:32
but why?
00:34
ANTOINETTE: I will describe what I see, okay?
00:36
I see an owl.
00:37
And to me, the owl looks surprised.
00:42
DEE: It has a very strong graphic design appearance.
00:47
It's not complicated.
00:49
NOEL: Enchantment is a perfect word
00:50
to describe this piece of art.
00:52
Really, it draws me in.
00:54
NARRATOR: What a splendid looking owl.
00:57
More fantastic than your average bird.
01:00
The figure is highly stylized,
01:02
made of pleasing simplified forms
01:05
with long whimsical feathers,
01:08
and it's coloured in a striking two-tone scheme.
01:11
NOEL: A lot of this art, for me,
01:12
is the simplicity of the art
01:14
is a lot of its strength.
01:15
SUNITA: It's that feathers that just, kind of,
01:17
like, elongate as you keep looking.
01:20
And the owl itself standing really tall.
01:23
DARYL: This became a very iconic image
01:25
when I was in high school.
01:26
I think that's why I know it.
01:28
NARRATOR: Perhaps what makes the artwork so iconic
01:30
is it's strong graphic quality.
01:33
The Enchanted Owl catches the eye
01:35
with its crisp, confident lines and fluid shapes,
01:39
with feathers like rays
01:41
and the colour powering outwards,
01:43
the bird beams with radiance, like the sun.
01:46
And with all the negative space,
01:48
the creature in the centre feels like an emblem.
01:51
The owl meets your eye
01:53
with a wise and curious expression.
01:56
What is it's story?
01:57
And from whose imagination did this magical creature fly?
02:02
Kenojuak Ashevak was born in a camp
02:05
on the Southern coast of Baffin Island in 1927.
02:09
She grew up on the land, moving camp-to-camp
02:13
following the migration of food sources.
02:16
As a young mother, Ashevak was forced
02:18
to leave her family for three years
02:21
while receiving treatment for tuberculosis
02:23
in a Quebec hospital.
02:25
She began practicing art
02:27
and various crafts there as a pastime.
02:30
Later, on a trip into Cape Dorset,
02:33
today known by its Inuktitut name, Kinngait,
02:36
Ashevak met artist and civil servant James Houston.
02:40
Houston noticed the design she'd made
02:43
on her sealskin bag, a rabbit eating seaweed.
02:47
He gave her drawing supplies
02:49
and asked if she could sketch it for him.
02:53
In Kinngait, Houston introduced printmaking techniques
02:56
and the artists quickly adapted
02:58
and experimented with the art form,
03:00
making it their own.
03:02
He encouraged Ashevak to pursue graphic arts
03:05
at the new printmaking studio there.
03:08
She became the first woman to join.
03:11
In 1959, her piece, Rabbit Eating Seaweed,
03:14
was included in the very first series
03:17
of prints from Cape Dorset.
03:19
And the artist's work
03:20
was part of nearly every annual print series
03:23
until her death in 2013.
03:27
(gentle music)
03:28
To produce her prints, Ashevak's original drawings
03:31
were actually transferred to stone.
03:33
Then a printmaker chiseled the surface
03:35
away from the design,
03:36
and ink was applied to the cut stone.
03:39
Finally, the paper, brought from Southern Canada,
03:42
was pressed against the stone surface.
03:45
The Enchanted Owl was printed in two variations,
03:49
red and black, and also green and black.
03:52
NOEL: I'm wondering if the owl spoke to her
03:54
as, kind of, who she was.
03:56
You know, the owl sits and watches.
03:58
Is she an observer?
04:00
ANTOINETTE: When I looked at it, I can't really turn off
04:02
because it says something to me.
04:05
The eyes.
04:06
I love the eyes.
04:08
DEE: Because of the colours and the way that the feathers
04:11
are radiating from the owl,
04:13
it suggests to me power or some sort of vibrancy,
04:19
almost akin to the sun.
04:23
NARRATOR: Owls were a favourite subject for the artist.
04:25
She depicted the wise bird
04:27
in more than 100 different prints.
04:29
When she was asked why she drew
04:31
the creature this way for The Enchanted Owl,
04:33
Ashevak said that the owl drives away the darkness.
04:37
The artist was greatly inspired by the natural world,
04:40
the animals and flowers of her Arctic landscape.
04:43
She was not interested
04:44
in depicting these realistically, however.
04:47
They were filtered through her imagination
04:48
to make something that was, most importantly,
04:51
pleasing to her own eye.
04:53
(woman speaks Inuktitut)
04:58
Ashevak once said, "There is no word for art".
05:02
We say it is to transfer something
05:04
from the real to the unreal.
05:06
I am an owl and I am a happy owl.
05:10
I like to make people happy and everything happy.
05:13
I am the light of happiness and I am a dancing owl".
05:18
60 years ago, printmaking was not an Inuit tradition,
05:23
but today it is.
05:25
The project began from colonial roots.
05:28
Houston was employed by the federal government
05:30
to encourage the production
05:32
of carving and crafts in the north,
05:34
and to promote the sale of Inuit art in the south.
05:38
Kinngait's print shop was launched
05:40
as an economic development initiative,
05:42
but the artists there took ownership of the practice.
05:45
They have developed
05:46
their own distinct styles and narratives,
05:49
and they use a co-op model where members share profits.
05:53
Ashevak valued how art-making
05:55
helped support her family and her community.
05:59
Over time, art has become a major industry in Kinngait.
06:03
In fact, it's said to have more artists per capita
06:06
than any other community in Canada.
06:09
DON: I feel introducing print making
06:11
to these indigenous communities
06:13
was a great idea,
06:15
to get artwork from indigenous communities out there.
06:19
DARYL: I don't know many stories like that in Canada,
06:21
where the government funded art equipment
06:25
to help with economic development.
06:27
That seems very forward thinking to me.
06:30
NARRATOR: In recent decades,
06:32
Kinngait has produced notable talents
06:34
like Shuvinai Ashoona, with her vivid surrealist fantasies,
06:38
Annie Pootoogook, who made honest depictions
06:41
of everyday life in the north,
06:43
and the hunter artist, Tim Pitsiulak,
06:45
whose extraordinary drawings
06:47
express a deep respect for the natural world.
06:50
These artists continue to expand
06:52
the vision of Inuit art,
06:54
and new artists are always joining the studio
06:56
to learn the crafts of drawing and printmaking.
07:00
In 2018, Kinngait Studios
07:03
found a new home with the opening
07:05
of the Kenojuak Cultural Centre and Print Shop.
07:09
Hanging prominently there is The Enchanted Owl,
07:12
the most famous print by the artist
07:14
who helped Intuit art take flight.
07:17
Join us as we decode Canadian art
07:20
and understand why looking at art matters.
07:23
(gentle music)

The Enchanted Owl by Kenojuak Ashevak inspired a whole group of artists. Get to know the artist and her community of Kinngait creators.

Kenojuak Ashevak – The Enchanted Owl