Cape Dorset (Mar 06/06) - What does Indian ink, dog-whips and soapstone have in common? They are all supplies Simon Tookoome cannot do without.

The multi-talented Baker Lake artist rounds out his year drawing, sculpting and showing off his skills with the dog whip.

Tookoome dedicates the colder months to drawing abstract images of animals and shamans, pulling inspiration from his surroundings. When his career first bloomed, he drew images from the stories his mother would tell.

He normally uses prisma coulour, Indian ink and pastel to add life and colour to his work.

Throughout the warmer season, he resorts to carving soapstone at his cabin about 12 km north of his home.

This story isn't rare. In fact, it's average for Baker Lake, a community crawling with artists.

Through translations from his daughter Nancy, Tookoome considers his art, specifically his drawings, unique compared to others because he simply draws different things.

"He feels like after looking at other artists' art, they mainly focus on one item, one seal or one bear, etc.," said Nancy. "And he says to himself 'there has to be different images that I can create. Like an animal figure attached to a human body, for example.'"

And how many others are known for their work with the dog whip?

"Every time he leaves for art shows, he always brings his whip," said Nancy.

His highly-crafted skills with the dog whip include snapping off one pop can at a time when lined five inches apart.

He also plays around with cigarettes. Setting one on the floor, he cracks his whip and slices the smoke in half, and then again, this time cutting the filter clean off.

Another trick is putting a pop can one foot in front of him and whipping it away using a 35 foot whip. Nancy says this takes serious skill.

Tookoome left the outpost camp he was born in near Cambridge Bay when it ran out of supplies.

Hearing the post near Baker Lake never suffered that problem, he trekked across the Kitikmeot in 1967. A couple of years later, he moved to Baker.

"He enjoys living in Baker Lake because he can do whatever he pleases. It is beautiful. The lake is considered to have the freshest waters in the world," Nancy translated. "The caribou are the best tasting and the wolves and wolverines have the finest pelts."

This winter he has been teaching kids in school to draw.

He's also a Ranger and Justice of the Peace.