Blue Ghost

This is a sculpture of an Inuksuk, an Inuktitut word that means, Inuk-man, suk-like.  An Inuksuk was the icon for the Canadian Winter Olympics in 2010. This one is made from a single block of stone, but made to appear as a traditional Inuksuk, which is usually made of individual stones: two leg rocks, several round body rocks, a flat shoulder rock, and a head rock.  They stand as lonely wind-worn sentinels on the Arctic tundra.  Sometimes they are used in series as trailmarkers across the sparse landscape or as a kind of scarecrow to frighten Caribou into an ambush of waiting hunters.  Perhaps more than anything, they are spiritual, and fiercely symbolic of the northern people’s nomadic nature and struggle against the harsh Arctic environment. This piece was made from an extremely hard soapstone used to manufacture woodstoves. It is also unique because it is so black that it appears in some light to be deep, deep blue.