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Isa Smiler [1921 - 1986]

His story
Aqiattusuk was Isa Smiler's Inuktitut name. Born in Inukjuak in 1921, both of his parents died from an illness when he was only nine-years-old. He worked as an assistant to a succession of Anglican missionaries, which involved giving Inuktitut lessons and acting as a translator. Encouraged by James Houston, he began carving in 1948. His work was, however, largely overlooked until the 1960s. Darlene Wight, curator of Inuit art at the Winnipeg Art Gallery, wrote: "They had escaped notice, although the artists' talent was clear from Bear's Head and Bird, both in the collection of the Canadian Museum of Civilization" (2006:93). In 2004, he was named one of the four best carvers by his colleague Johnny Inukpuk.

In 1958, Smiler began painting at the urging of Marjorie Hinds, a teacher in Inukjuak. Two of his paintings were featured in Beaver Magazine, Autumn 1967. He did most of his drawings when he was in the Moose Factory hospital during 1973 and 1974. Smiler also wrote his autobiography, which was published in Inuktitut Magazine. (Summer-Fall, 1977). At Waddington's November 2008 Inuit Art auction, Mother and Child sold for $48,000.

His art
Although Smiler had been steadily carving, it wasn't until the mid 1950s that he became more serious about his art. "I think it was 1955-56 when I was in Inukjuak that I really started carving earnestly. Jimmy Houston had just recently started everyone carving... He used to get me to carve from ivory which took a long time to finish. He had other people carving from soapstone... I remember using a whole antler and carving designs on it. The black marks were from old records which I had to melt. I would sell them [carvings] for only eight dollars... I also made a belt out of ivory: I cut the ivory into little squares, carved designs on them, made two holes on each side, and tied them together with thread. Afterwards I made a knife from a file and a handle from antler. I carved the antler [or possibly ivory] and made a cover for the knife," he said in his autobiography published in Inuktitut Magazine. Talking about a chess set he made in the 1960s, his daughter, Siasi Smiler Irqumia, said, "It was one of the best carvings I have seen - little animals carved out of soapstone. ... That chess set reminds me of peaceful times, growing up watching my father make art" (Interview with Inuit Art Foundation staff in Inukjuak in 2009).

References
Wight, Darlene
2006 Early Masters: Inuit Sculpture 1949-1955. Winnipeg: Winnipeg Art Gallery.