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Harry Egotak
Inuit, 1925 - 2009
HARRY EGOTAK b. 1925
Two Men Hunting a Bear
Harry Egotak was born while his family was living on Banks Island. His mother is the artist, Flossie Papidluk (1904-1994), and his father is her first husband, Akoakhion. Egotak’s earliest memories are of the Read Island area when his father was still alive. His parents travelled and camped in different places, joining up with other groups for a year or two and then going their separate ways. Egotak’s wife is from a small island off Berkeley Point. They married in 1950, when they were near Minto Inlet, moving to Berkeley Point in 1953 and later to Holman, having heard about the outpost and the many Inuit who were settling there.
Egotak was one of the original group of five who made prints in the early 1960s. He recalls the resourcefulness of the group — making do with what they had, in the absence of professional artists’ printmaking tools. They began their printmaking experiments in a little building behind the Co-op store. They found the dried skins of the sealskin stencils to be quite stiff, so they took off the fur and fat to make them softer. They cut out the images with men’s razors and used toothbrushes and shaving brushes to apply the ink The ends of the shaving brushes, too soft for stencilling, were cut to make the tips stiffer. (http://www.virtualmuseum.ca/Exhibitions/Holman/english/artists/index.php3)
Two Men Hunting a Bear
Harry Egotak was born while his family was living on Banks Island. His mother is the artist, Flossie Papidluk (1904-1994), and his father is her first husband, Akoakhion. Egotak’s earliest memories are of the Read Island area when his father was still alive. His parents travelled and camped in different places, joining up with other groups for a year or two and then going their separate ways. Egotak’s wife is from a small island off Berkeley Point. They married in 1950, when they were near Minto Inlet, moving to Berkeley Point in 1953 and later to Holman, having heard about the outpost and the many Inuit who were settling there.
Egotak was one of the original group of five who made prints in the early 1960s. He recalls the resourcefulness of the group — making do with what they had, in the absence of professional artists’ printmaking tools. They began their printmaking experiments in a little building behind the Co-op store. They found the dried skins of the sealskin stencils to be quite stiff, so they took off the fur and fat to make them softer. They cut out the images with men’s razors and used toothbrushes and shaving brushes to apply the ink The ends of the shaving brushes, too soft for stencilling, were cut to make the tips stiffer. (http://www.virtualmuseum.ca/Exhibitions/Holman/english/artists/index.php3)