INUVIK - It's been a long time, but the faded "Welcome to Inuvik" sign just got a whole lot brighter.

Over the past month, artist Christina Kasook has been working long hours to refresh the old sign to its former glory.

Christina Kasook spent most of the past few weeks high atop scaffolding, painting the "Welcome to Inuvik" sign. She said the work has been hard, but the reward of meeting so many people has made it worth the effort. - Dez Loreen/NNSL photo

Kasook said she was hired by the town to refurbish the sign.

"At first, I thought it was all going to be easy, just a few colours, but it wasn't," she said.

"There was a lot of mixing and matching to get the right shades."

Home Hardware supplied the paint and K and S Services donated the use of a pump scaffold.

"I started my work on the sign on June 2," she said.

Kasook first had to sand the whole board down before she could mix any paint.

The heat made the work challenging.

"It got pretty bad up there. There was a few times where I thought I was going to fall off the scaffolding because of the heat," she said.

"I pace myself, I have a drink and when I'm ready, I get back up there and keep on painting."

The best and most rewarding part of the whole experience has been meeting the people who stop and say hello.

"I saw a lot of tourists," said Kasook.

"They were all really friendly and wanted to see what I was doing."

From start to finish, Kasook said she put in about 70 hours into the sign. A family member who was paid by the town helped her.

Rick Campbell of the Town of Inuvik that contacted her about doing the work.

"I'd never done anything this big before and probably won't again," she said.

"It's a lot of work."

She said even though she got paid for the work, she said she got extra satisfaction from helping out the 50th anniversary of the town.

"This is my contribution to the celebration," she said.

As of last week, Kasook said she was on a tight deadline to get the rest of the grey border painted.

The sign is made of a thick grey border and a thin outline of Delta braid, a popular design in the region.

"I had a coworker come out and help with the Delta braid," said Kasook.

The detailed pictures on the sign were challenging to retrace and complete.

During her final days of painting, Kasook said she wanted to finish the border and do a bit more work on the lines in the painting.