INUVIK - At the age of 12, Curtis Taylor watched his father carve sculptures out of caribou antler. After observing his father for a year, Taylor picked up tools and started to carve his own sculptures.

Curtis Taylor displays his soapstone carvings at the Great Northern Arts Festival - Maung Tin/NNSL photo

He first began carving with caribou antler, and later, with soapstone.

Taylor, 23, has become a well-known artist in the Northwest Territories. This year, Taylor participated at the Great Northern Arts Festival in Inuvik and made quite an impression as one of the youngest soapstone artists to attend.

While participating in the festival, Taylor was on his feet going back and forth from the gallery to the artist workshop, where he was sanding and chiselling away on his beautiful creations.

While growing up as a child, Taylor remembers the only way he kept himself busy was by carving soapstone.

"It was something fun for me to do. It wasn't my interest to go out and play ball ... I always wanted to keep my hands busy and that is what made me want to carve," he said.

His creativity took shape through careful observation of other artists, who etched themes of culture and history into their carvings. Watching them allowed Taylor to grow and gain substantial understanding as an artist.

He also explained being involved with other artists like himself at the festival gave him much inspiration and new ideas for his future carvings.

When choosing soapstone, Taylor is very particular because he likes to work with soapstone that is not perfect.

"The stone has to have something, either a crack or a break just so that I can see the movement in it," he said. "Only then am I able to vision what type of a sculpture it will be and begin working on it."

Taylor's sculptures are appreciated by people from all across Canada and U.S. In recent years, with tourism opening up, Taylor's art has gone as far as China and Japan. His artwork can be found at the Originals On Mackenzie retail store and the Boreal Bookstore in Inuvik.

As an emerging artist, Taylor also maintains a full-time job and is occupied with his wife and kids.

When asked about his dreams Taylor said, "My dream is to raise my family and teach my kids how to fish and hunt ... I love hunting caribou, whale and geese."

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