Laura Power
Northern News Services
Friday, July 27, 2007

YELLOWKNIFE - With eight Yellowknife artists scheduled to attend the Great Northern Arts Festival in Inuvik, the city would have had the largest representation after Inuvik itself.

But even though two of the eight artists - Jamie Look and Derrald Taylor - were unable to make it, Yk artists say they feel the city was still well represented.

Angel-Rose Betthale, five, helps Yellowknifer Diane Boudreau with a mural earlier this week in Inuvik at the Great Northern Arts Festival. - Laura Power/NNSL photo

"We're really missing both of them - we're hoping that maybe they can make it next year," said Marnie Hilash, executive director of the festival.

The six Yk artists who made their way up to the festival exhibited a variety of art forms for onlookers. From jewelry making to mural painting, Yellowknifers showed the North what they're made of - and what they're making.

Rosalind Mercredi of Down to Earth Gallery was at the festival working on some blown glass art. She said there was a good cross-section of work at the festival and a good mix of Yellowknifers.

This mix also included Caroline Blechert, a 20-year-old jewelry maker who is back in Yellowknife for the summer between semesters at art school. This was Blechert's third year at the festival. She said initially she wasn't sure how much of her work she could sell, but all her work sold out in the first day.

"This festival kind of helped me realize that I could actually go somewhere doing things," she said.

Charlene Alexander, one of the co-founders of the festival, said Blechert "represents young Northern artists who are using a traditional art form in a contemporary manner," and anticipates that she will do well with the art she is producing.

"We expect some incredible exciting things from her in the future," she said.

Blechert said she would certainly like to come back to the festival again, but would also like to take her work to international festivals where she can work with a different market in the future.

Martin Goodliffe, a Yellowknife-based jewelry maker, was at the festival for the 15th time.

"You get to meet people from the Eastern Arctic, you get to meet people from the Yukon," he said. "It's just a good way to see what other people are doing, learn more techniques."

Organizers said they were pleased with Yellowknife's showing of artists, which also included Diane Boudreau, Antoine Mountain and Eli Nasogaluak.