SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Tomorrow is a day to experience contemporary local art while learning about the hardworking people in our community who create it.

The Aurora Arts Society is holding its annual ArtsWalk event tomorrow. Everyone is welcome to visit the many art studios located all over town.

Goota Ashoona carves fine detail into a piece of whalebone in her Old Town Studio on McDonald Drive. - photo courtesy of Pablo Saravanja

"We are allowing the public into our inner sanctums so that hopefully they gain an understanding of our creative process and develop an appreciation for the hard work and effort required to do what we do," explained society president Terry Pamplin in a written statement about the event. "By watching Yellowknife's artists at work the viewing public will be able to put into context with the artist some of the many components that constitute a contemporary work of art. They can ask questions and often they can try different mediums and techniques."

The ArtsWeek gallery is still on display in the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre auditorium this weekend.

For addresses, contact information and a schedule of studio hours for Saturday's event, interested people can consult the Aurora Arts Society website or pick up an ArtsWalk map at the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre auditorium today or tomorrow.

Artists interested in getting involved in the society can attend the annual general meeting in the heritage centre auditorium at 3 p.m. on Sunday.

Listed here are brief introductions to some of the artists who are opening up their spaces tomorrow.

Members of the Ashoona family are working on a number of monumental pieces in bone and stone this weekend.

Joe Ashoona recently completed a hulking and powerful white alabaster carving of an owl shaman. His recent work will be on display this weekend as he carves a fresh piece of stone. Joe's mother Goota just finished carving a mask from the tailbone of a Blue Whale. She also completed two stone kudliks this month. She is finishing a captivating figurative sculpture in honey gold alabaster this weekend.

"It's all about the beauty of a mother and child," she said.

Bob Kussy is working on a number of large commissions, offering visitors a chance to see carvings at various stages of completion. Visitors will also have an opportunity to see uncarved blue whale bone, the biggest bones on the planet, as this multi-generational family of artists fashion their art in Old Town.

During Saturday's open house, artist Ann Timmins is working on a huge three-panel mural the Aurora Arts Society will install on the edge of the Diamond Plaza facing Franklin Avenue later this month. The massive mural, which expresses the theme of movement and energy, is titled Elation.

"That sums up my feeling when I'm out on the land," Timmins said.

In the studio, visitors can explore her recent work in watercolour, oil and pastels as well as soft sculpture pieces.

Timmins totes her art supplies in a backpack as she scrambles up the rock around Yellowknife's lakes to reach the spectacular vistas captured in her paintings.She also creates historical work that celebrates little-told stories from Northern history.

Her paintings include a portrait of a burlesque dancer resting between performances in an early Yukon mining town, a Dene woman gathering food on the land and the Daughters of the Midnight Sun hamming it up at a festival fundraiser.

Ptarmigans, loons, ravens and other wildlife are honoured in many of her paintings.

Yellowknife Glass Recyclers Co-operative is bringing back its popular glass-stenciling workshop on Saturday.

This workshop will probably fill up quickly but people are able to pre-register.

The workshop will introduce participants to the art of sandblasting and stencil-making while saving bottles from the waste stream.

Participants can design their own stencils or choose from the co-op's classic designs, which include images of Northern wildlife, Northern lights and jack pine silhouettes.

The show room features a vast variety of glass art, including a line of multi-coloured mini vases created by co-op member Sophie Grogono.

Landscape and portrait painter Bonnie Madsen will tour guests through her little studio near the edge of Old Town.

Look for the sandwich boards on Franklin Avenue and School Draw Avenue.

Her realist art offers an imaginative perspective on the North and its history. The mining industry and its workers, elders on the land and Arctic flora and fauna make up a lot of her subjects.

Classically-trained, Madsen produces a diversity of large-scale works in her lakeside studio.

Ceramic artist Astrid Kruse will spin clay in her suburban studio on Saturday.

She has worked with clay since 1986 and this year made the leap into life as a full-time, self-employed artist.

She spent a month this summer training at intensive courses at Red Deer College in Alberta and at Metchosin International Summer School of the Arts near Victoria, B.C.

Kruse is passionate about her art and as such is a great source of information and inspiration for anyone interested in ceramic art.

"Throwing clay on the potter's wheel is a creative and compelling discipline," she said.

Kruse will show visitors how she transforms wet clay into a bowl, mug or plate.

Art enthusiasts interested in taking a colourful fall drive can consider visiting Dream Rock Studio at Prelude.

Diane Mercredi is showing her work on Saturday, which includes a series of oil paintings depicting various water scenes along Great Slave and Prelude lakes.

She also paints the Northern lights, fireweed, flowers from her garden and everyday items like garlic cloves.

Her studio walls are decorated with her linocuts and monotypes. She will introduce visitors to her printing process on Saturday.

Some of her linocuts feature stylized, almost cartoonish ravens.

Her work is also on display at Down To Earth Gallery in Old Town and in the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre auditorium.

Efrain Perdomo opened his new studio in Old Town last month.

He has a workspace in the back of the cozy green shack where visitors can watch him work. He will show visitors around his new studio space on Saturday.

Perdomo designs original jewelry from organic materials as well as larger work in leather. His art combines international influences informed by years of training in various disciplines.

Terry Pamplin is well known for his fantastic imagery and diverse styles of representation that include paintings of dynamic galaxies, worn-out trucks overgrown with brush and intimate portraiture.

His studio also houses abstract sculpture that explores abstract concepts such as the theory of relativity or meditations on general and specific eruptions of human conflict.

On Saturday, Pamplin will work on a commissioned piece that involves an outdoor scene painted in a window frame. He will entertain questions about art and method as he works.