by Janet Smellie
Northern News Services

NNSL (Oct 13/97) - Growing up without television or electricity on a small island across from Tuktoyaktuk was never dull for Bill Nasogaluak.

As long as he had a pencil and a sketch pad, he was "always drawing or creating something." What he didn't know during his early years was that those sketches would continue to inspire his art more than 30 years later.

"I used to dream of becoming a cartoonist for Marvel Comic Books," recalled Nasogaluak during an interview in Yellowknife.

"I still draw Spiderman today," he notes, adding it was his daily sketches of these superheroes that taught him the technique of drawing the human form.

Nasogaluak, who grew up on Baillie Island near Tuktoyaktuk, has spent the last four years based in Yellowknife where he's continuing to do what he does best -- offer his collectors works that not only increase in value over time, but serve as an link for his people to the times of the past.

"I'm really trying to express my Inuvialuit culture through my art -- be it painting or carving -- because our culture was strictly oral, nothing was written down. Rather than pass it down orally like my ancestors, I'm trying to pass it down artistically."

His work doesn't disappoint. His sculptures demonstrate the depth of technical skill that collectors are looking for. Artistically, his carvings tell the stories of his Inuvialuit background, with its myths, people and legends.

The sculpture Gooblualooq, intricately designed and carved in both soapstone and limestone, is just one example of personally important his heritage is. In last fall's issue of Inuit Art Quarterly Nasogaluak wrote:

"He was a shaman, who used to transform himself into a hawk. He lived in the Tuktoyaktuk-Baillie Island region and I portray him a lot in my work because he is a close link to my father; a lot of the elders in Tuk know him. They know of his episodes. He was a very confident, influential shaman."

For 18 years he worked as an electronics technician and painted and sculpted part-time. For the past five years, Nasogaluak has been able to make a living from his art full-time.

Fluent in Inuvialuktun, Nasogaluak misses the land where he grew up and he returns home every May to hunt and to travel on the land, where he gets his inspiration.

"I miss the ocean, the smell of the sea is something I'll always need. If Tuk had a less harsh climate I'd live there."

Selling traditional art in a modern marketplace requires modern techniques. Nasogaluak says he's received a lot of help from the NWT Development Corporation in marketing his work through the Arctic Canada Trading Company. He's also adapted to the tools of modern marketing.

"I sell a lot of sculpture over the fax machine. I draw a sketch and fax it to the dealers and whoever's interested. It's quite convenient."

With his work regularly distributed in San Francisco, Chicago, Toronto and Victoria, Nasogaluak is planning to move to British Columbia this winter where he can settle down to work on his next project.

"I'm working on a series of life-size sculptures that I want to have done by 1999. It's a dream to also get into marble. I spent some time last year in Marble, Colorado and was amazed at the materials available."

And while he's earned up to $10,000 for his work, becoming rich or famous is not his priority.

"To me success means being able to pay my bills on a day-to-day basis. The longer I stay in art, the less value I seem to have in the monetary world. I'd rather dig down deep to express my art than count the money in my bank account," he says adding, "I wake up and consider I have the greatest job in the world. To make a living off what I like, I think, is an accomplishment."