Kuninaan Ruben

THE PRIDE OF PAULATUK

I was originally born in Cambridge Bay but moved to Paulatuk as a young child with my parents. I always remember—I would go travelling out in the land with my father. I might have been 5-7 years old. One time, we were out camping in a tent, out in the land. That same evening, we had a big blizzard, so we couldn't go out of the tent! My father found a whole piece of paper and a small pencil and started drawing that night. I was watching him— that's what kind of got me interested in artwork. I took interest from there.

My father and grandfather were never really into art, though. Just out there, being on the land, you gotta find something to do. I guess that night, he found a piece of paper and thought of drawing something—just to pass time. That's how I got interested. It gave me the inspiration to start off from there and I just continued on from that day! From there, I've always been self-taught with my artwork, right from when I was a young boy.

In my 20s, painting was pretty much my favourite thing to work with, until I started trying different things like charcoal sketches. Then, I started getting a bit into carvings—making pendants, rings and small stuff like that. It depends on how I feel, you know? There's times when I want to take a break from painting so I move to charcoal work. If not charcoal, I'll do a little bit of carving—switch it up, which is good! Take a break from this and that, then you come up with different ideas for whatever you're working on later.

I'll be 50 years old in June—so I will have been doing art for close to 45 years, pretty much! I've always loved doing art. I found that it helps when you got nothing to do. It keeps me busy and I enjoy it. Today, I still do it and look at it as a hobby most times. It also helps me with my bills and groceries, and people love my artwork. It always makes a good gift.

TEACHING & LEADING THROUGH ART

I've taught a class or two in the past at the school. The principal and teachers had known about my art and asked me one day if I'd like to go and teach the students. I did one class at the Paulatuk Community Corporation boardroom once; I had a good group that came in. Still today, I get teachers and principals asking me if I'd like to go in and teach. It just depends on how busy I am! I love teaching younger children and I love watching them do their own work. I always like to give them a little advice, teach them little tricks about artwork, and tell them: it helps with your mind and soul, and it helps with the bills.

I get a few students, every now and then, who come to visit when I'm working. They come and visit for a couple minutes—next thing they're here for an hour, just watching me do my art! Then they start asking me questions, like who taught me, and how I do this and that. I try to show them what to do with charcoal, painting, or whatever medium—even carving. I give them the best advice I can, if they're really into the artwork.

But now, I notice—youth and young children are getting into art. That's what I like to see. You can tell they have so much talent already! Through social media, I notice youth and children—their parents like to show their children's artwork. I make little comments: very nice job, well done, awesome work! I tell the parents to tell their children to keep it up! It's a nice thing to have in your life—this kind of talent. Some people call it a hobby. Other people take it as a business as they grow up. It's a nice thing to have. I just tell them to keep it up, as much as they can. It helps in many ways. People love to see artwork from all over.

ART ON THE LAND

I think you have to live up in the North pretty much your whole life to really capture things like northern lights in paintings. To me, that's the way I look at it. I have been living here pretty much my whole life. It just amazes me—the colours, the shapes that come out. The same goes for sunset paintings and other paintings I do. You get that being out in the land, you know? You can't get that down in the city life. When you live in a city, there's so much light all over, you can't see things like northern lights out there! When you live in a remote community, being out in the land at night—boy, it's like you can almost touch them out there. While I do most of my work at home, in the house—there's a lot of times I use a nice Fuji camera to take pictures. I'd have that to look at and capture those colours and scenes through my pictures.

I've done so many pieces that it's hard to look at all of them and choose just a few favourites!

I love working on Polar Bears, sunsets, charcoal work, sketching young babies—they just show how innocent they are when you do a portrait of them. Every day is a different day. I learn things every day, it's like nonstop as an artist. I've been doing it for almost 45 years! I'm still learning as days go on. I get new images in my head every day. When I'm working on a piece, I still get things in my mind I want to pop out, and I like to bring them out in my artwork. With social media, stuff like the Great Northern Arts Festival—you learn different styles of work from different artists, too.

LISTENING TO ELDERS

I've got a few favourite artists: a few cousins and uncles who have been pretty much carving their entire lives, as well as using oil paints. I used to see them working when I was growing up. There's a lot of female artists that do tapestry work and storytelling as well. To me, there's lots of carvers. I'm pretty much the only artist who likes to work with paints and charcoal!

I find some nice work from our Elders in Paulatuk. Right now, our Elders are—like every community—we're losing a lot of them. Growing up, I got a lot of compliments when I first started from my Elders! They just told me to keep up my work, good work—it gave me more motivation and inspiration and kept me going! The only time I'll ever stop is if I ever lose my fingers! [laughs] I pretty much learn most of my living from my Elders—the stories they tell me and the advice they give. You listen to them, and good things happen when you start growing up. You follow their footsteps. I think the words from Elders and the stories they taught us will inspire a lot of younger youth and generations coming up.

Art is a huge thing—in different ways—it's just beautiful, you know?