… About Deflecting the Suns Rays
$2,200.00
Reserved for purchase
Description
‘… About Deflecting the Suns Rays’ by Ningeokuluk Teevee is a 2023 Cape Dorset original coloured pencil and pentel drawing on paper — a luminous, surreal composition where a walrus shelters a tattooed woman beneath the soft glow of an Arctic sunset.
This beautiful drawing is now reserved for a customer.
Condition – No condition noted. Paper surface appears clean and stable.
Description by Artist – No description by artist found.
Notes from DaVic Gallery – Ningeokuluk Teevee’s ‘… About Deflecting the Suns Rays’ blends biological observation, Inuit knowledge, and dreamlike symbolism into a single radiant scene. The walrus dominates the composition, its hide rendered in deep purples and magentas that echo a real Arctic phenomenon: when basking in sunlight, a walrus’s skin flushes pink as blood rises to the surface to regulate temperature and soften the sun’s intensity. Teevee transforms this natural adaptation into a visual metaphor for protection and resilience.
Cradled within the curved fold of the walrus’s flipper is a woman with traditional facial tattoos (tunniit). She is not shielding herself from the sun; she is resting, listening, and looking upward. Her gaze meets the band of sunset stretching across the horizon, a moment when the sun’s rays are no longer harsh but diffused and gentle. Teevee’s spiral flipper fold, marked with concentric patterns, acts as a symbolic shield that bends and softens the light around her.
The title’s ellipsis suggests an elder mid-explanation, as if this drawing captures one part of a larger teaching about how beings in the Arctic live with the sun. Survival here is not about resisting the elements but about deflecting, redirecting, and adapting to them. The walrus embodies this wisdom, and the woman learns from it, wrapped safely within its protective form.
Collectors will appreciate this work for its emotional warmth, its surreal elegance, and its layered meaning. Teevee’s integration of human and animal forms speaks to continuity between species, environment, and spirit. The vivid pink paper, the contrast of pale tusks against dark hide, and the gentle horizon glow make this a standout example of her contemporary storytelling.
The blank sheet of letter-size (8 ½ x 11 in) paper covering part of the image in the scale reference picture is provided for size comparison, offering an immediate sense of the drawing’s scale and presence.
Copyright – (c) DaVic Art Gallery, 2026. All rights reserved. Content may be quoted or reproduced for educational or promotional purposes only with clear attribution to DaVic Art Gallery of Native Canadian Arts and inclusion of the artwork title and the artist’s name.