1441-14 Inuit Stonecut and Stencil, "Sea Pigeons"; Cape Dorset; Keeleemeeoomee 5/50
c. 1978
Frame measures 30 1/4 x 24 1/4 inches. Image measures 28 x 22 1/4 inches.
Keeleemeeoomee Samuelie
Inuit
Cape Dorset, Nunavut Territory, Canada
(1919-1983)
Keeleemeeoomee was the sister of artists Anna Kingwatsiak (1911-1971), Tye Adla (1936-1990), and Iyola and Mikigak Kingwatsiak. She was the mother of the graphic artist Eliyakota Samualie (1939-1987), and the wife of Samuellie Tunnillie.
Excerpt courtesy Inuit Art Section, Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC), 1997.
"I often laugh at my drawings because after being so difficult to draw, when they are finished, they always look so funny. I even laugh at them while I am making them…. My husband and I live with our daughter, Eliyakota and her family. Eliyakota started drawing before I did. I like her drawings better than mine; they are more realistic and properly drawn. Everybody was drawing, so I started too… The only picture I have drawn about the old days is one with people wearing sealskin clothing like we did then. Once in a while, the memories are so fresh in my mind when I think about how it was then when I was a little girl, about my father and mother, and what my mother used to make me for clothing. My husband and I have not gone out camping for many years now."