Daron Letts
Northern News Services

Iglulik (June 27/05) - Iglulik-born artist Germaine Arnak Tauyok got a phone call from the National Gallery of Canada last Tuesday.

The curators chose three of her prints to hang in the country's most prestigious gallery.

The etchings, created between 1993-96, include Tattoo Lady, Then and Now, and Fertility Mask.

Tauyok grew up in Iglulik but moved to Yellowknife 16 years ago.

This isn't the first time Tayouk's work received such wide attention.

One of her prints, Bone Combs, made a cameo in the Hollywood comedy Mean Girls. A producer saw the work in Toronto and chose to use it in the background of one scene.

Tayouk started printmaking in 1992. She has several prints of her etchings and pen and ink drawings hanging in the Visual Effects Gallery and the Gallery of the Midnight Sun in Yellowknife.

She considered it appropriate that the National Gallery should call her.

"I thought, well, it's about time because I'm getting old," she said.

Tayouk is currently working in pen and ink. She will release six new prints this winter.