Hello Ookpik, my old friend.

There was a time in this fair land when the arctic influences ran wild, as a child, it seemed that I couldn't turn around without spying Ookpik. Ookpiks everywhere, made from just about everything, once I even saw an Ookpik made from a taxidermied caribou rump. And then, one day when I wasn't looking, Ookpik disappeared. Whatever happened to Ookpik ? When I pulled this rock from the Bulkley River, in northern BC, I thought I saw my old friend Ookipik. Carved by my hand from felthispasic sandstone, this piece has a natural quartz ring separating the head from the body. It was glued together at creation, by mother nature, using the heat and the pressure which made the world. Notes: Ookpik is Inuktitut for Snowy Owl; to find out more about snowy owls, arctic art history, and arctic culture, simply follow the links.
Snowy Owls: hinterland who's who
Inuktitut syllabary ᑎᑎᕋᐅᓯᖅ ᓄᑕᐊᖅ
Jeannie Snowball ate an Ookpik
* footnote Douglas Coupland
Arctic Studies, Smithsonian
* Hobo Divine

photo credit: Peter Lattimer
-Copy Cats are Dirty Rats