Lucy Tasseor Tutsweetok

Lucy Tasseor Tutsweetok was born just south of the N.W.T. border in Nunalla, Manitoba in 1934.
After her father’s death Tasseor lived with her grandparents in and around Nunalla and Churchill. Tasseor married Richard Tutsweetok in Rankin Inlet in 1960, and moved to Arviat, N.W.T. soon after. She began carving in the early 1960s.
Tasseor drew inspiration from the memories of sand drawings that she and her grandfather (whom she considers to be the greatest influence on her life) had made when she was a child. Her sculptures, representing mothers and children or family groups, are carved in a semi-abstract style in which the human figure is rarely defined. Tasseor works the stone very sparingly, leaving large undulating surfaces uncarved, decorated with incised drawings. For Tasseor, a flat stone plane has as much expressive power as a face. Human subjects are suggested by faces, arms and legs that emerge from the stone, often only along the edges of the carving. Subtle variations in the positioning or expression of heads and faces provide clues to understanding the meaning of specific sculptures. Tasseor herself assigns very specific meanings or moods to each of her works."

—excerpted from Ingo Hessel, Visions of Power, 1991.

Lucy Tasseor Tutsweetok now lives in Arviat, NWT.

Exhibitions

Masterworks of the Canadian Arctic", which toured internationally from 1971-1973
The Keewatin Spirit, at the Mackenzie Art Gallery in Regina in 1986.
In the Shadow of the Sun, at the CANADIAN MUSEUM OF CIVILIZATION in 1988;
Indigena, held at the CMC in 1992.
The Art Gallery of Ontario
The National Gallery of Canada
The Canadian Museum of Civilization
The Winnipeg Art Gallery.

Collections

In major collections in Canada and the United States, Her work is in the collection of the National Gallery, the Art Gallery of Ontario and the Inuit Cultural Institute in Kangiqlliniq.