Tasseor Tutsweetok, Lucy (1934 - 2012)

Culture/Community

Inuit (Arviat)

Biography

Tasseor was born at Nunalla in northern Manitoba, just south of the border of what was then the Northwest Territories. She was a member of the Ihalmiut caribou Inuit who lived in and around Ennadai Lake. After the death of her father she went to live with her grandparents and she cites her grandfather as a strong influence on her work as an artist. In 1960 she married Richard Tutsweetok in Rankin Inlet and they moved to Arviat soon after, at which point she began to carve. Early carvings of arctic animals were soon replaced by more figurative work. Themes of mother and child, family and community were the primary focus of her sculpture. (Reference: Ingo Hessel, Visions of Power, 1991.)