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IQALUIT - From mermaids to polar bears, John Pauloosie's imagination contains a menagerie of Northern and mythical creatures from which to draw inspiration.

The soft-spoken 21-year-old from Iqaluit began to hunt and paint at a young age. Eventually, the one became a reflection of the other.

"When I go hunting I see things that I memorize and then I draw it," he said. "I just keep drawing and drawing."

Pauloosie's grandfather first taught him how to hunt seals and caribou and to fish. The story of his most prized boyhood kill animates the quiet young man.

As Pauloosie remembers it, he was helping his grandfather, father and a couple of his uncles put up some seal nets. When they came back to check on their catch, the young hunter received an unexpected surprise.

"There were two sharks on the net," Pauloosie recalled. "Two of them were stuck on the net and one was around our boat ... The shark was coming to our boat and I just threw the harpoon at it. I got it in the mouth and the shark moved a little bit, shaking, and then he died. My grandpa took it with him."

It wasn't as tasty as seal meat, but the experience of spearing a shark was a thrill in itself.

"People tried a couple of bites, but not a lot," said Pauloosie. "When I was young, I never thought there would be sharks. I saw polar bears and wolves, but I never saw a shark (until then)."

While hunting is a skill he learned, Pauloosie's creative abilities are entirely self-taught. His interest in becoming an artist began when he was five-years-old.

"I saw something I liked and then drew," Pauloosie said. "I saw a drum and I started drawing and then I started putting things in it."

Now drawing and painting a couple times a week, he has started to sell some of his artwork and aspires to be a professional artist someday.

"It feels cool making something I like and making it nice," said Pauloosie.