“I've always been around art, and it's just kind of second nature to express myself that way,” says Erica Jacque, an Inuk artist from Postville, Nunatsiavut. She's studying at the Pirurvik language school in Iqaluit taking the Aurniarvik program, an Inuktitut as a second language program. She’s been living in Iqaluit for three years and it’s where her art career has blossomed.

Her medium of choice is textile art: embroidered earrings. She started in high school after learning the basics in lifeskills class. She made nature scenes like flowers, then horror movie characters for hallowe’en and aliens. She later incorporated traditional Inuit artists' work and now cultural images. She’s made beaded earrings and paintings that look like dried fish and earrings that look like aliens.

She also does traditional tattooing, stick and poke tattooing, something she learned from a two week course. Additionally, she paints watercolour and acrylic and she’s teaching herself animation. She’s also made three atigis (parkas) so far.

When she first signed up for the course about Inuit tattooing she didn’t realize it was learning how to tattoo, she thought it was learning about tattooing as a practice. “When people trust me to do markings for them, especially if it's their first, I feel really privileged, because it just deepens my sense of belonging, and also helps me do that for other people too,” she explains.

The course itself was a pilot project and eight Inuit students applied. They got to tattoo community members at the end and she’s since tattooed those same people again. They received a certificate and were offered a blood borne pathogen certificate to demonstrate their competency.

Another area she has been exploring has been digital art, working with publications, and creating merchandise. She’s made Valentine’s cards, coffee mugs and tote bags. As a traditional artist, she works as an artist for hire to create illustrations and pieces of art. She finds it nerveracking at first but it works out in the end.

Her love for painting came from the artists on both sides of her family who create daily for the love of creating art. “Painting is just kind of very accessible…. it's immediate. I like embroidery, but it's so time consuming, and you have to be really in the mood. Painting, you can have a product at the end of the day, and you can manipulate it at a different point too, if you don't like the direction it's going,” she reflects. She painted a mural at the middle school in collaboration with her brother who helped her with the digital design to create it to scale. She created something for the Arctic Inspiration million dollar prize winner, too.

She’s also made dioramas, something that appealed to her as a homebody. She is fascinated by home decor and what people choose to display. She enjoys the compact art form that is viewable and touchable.

In the past, she’s sold creations to raise funds for causes she cares about like Water is Life Gaza and the purchase of sanitary items for women at the safe house in Nain. While she now needs to support herself, she hopes to fundraise again in the future.

Another exciting project Jacque has been working on is an Inuktitut language app, pairing elders with youth to make content. She hopes the app will help make the language relevant to Inuit today.

When it comes to education, Jacque has taken college online but she prefers informal learning focusing on people and relationships. “You can learn anywhere. It doesn't have to be in college or university. Could be in an organization in your home community…they always have cool things on the go, so take advantage of it,” she urges.

Her advice for Indigenous students thinking about whether or not to leave their home community is, “You don't have to even leave your home community if it's just not for you. But I think it's worthwhile. Sometimes you have to get outside of your comfort zone to experience new things, and it's scary, but I think it's helpful to remind yourself that there are going to be people who love you wherever you go, that's you'll find connections wherever.” She recognizes that it’s a big, intimidating choice and it seems like you have to leave to be successful but she assures there are people doing great things back home, too.

As far as obstacles go, Jacque says, “Most of my obstacles are made in my own mind… I think I have a lot of feelings of imposter syndrome when it comes to art…and those are just feelings that they're gonna come, but then they'll go, and you'll meet people who will help you along the way to get out of that frame of mind.”

Thinking of how she manages her mental health and wellbeing, Jacque shares, “I think you just have to get out of your head and talk to other people.” She finds it helpful to bounce the things she’s feeling off of other people and also to keep herself busy. The art she creates makes her feel proud, too.

“Art just happens.”

If she could share a message with her younger self it would be, “You think that your point of view is not worthwhile, but it is. There are going to be people who take inspiration from that. You never know who's watching.”

When it comes to inspiration, Jacque looks to common and relatable things, especially out on the land.

“I think nature provides everything that we need, and we can take from that all we need for beautiful artistic creations too,” she says.

In terms of her advice for aspiring artists, Jacque offers, “You just have to start and if you don't know if it's good or not, you just have to keep going. You're not gonna like what you make all the time, but when you do make something that you like, it's all worth it. You don't have to make money off of your art for it to be valuable. I try not to get caught up in that too much of trying to monetize everything I do, just doing things for the love of it is rewarding as well.”

Always having been around art, it’s second nature for Erica Jacque to express herself that way. From embroidered earrings to digital art to paintings and stick and poke tattoos, she creates in a variety of art forms. Overcoming imposter syndrome to continue to create, she perseveres and makes art for herself and others.

Thanks to Alison Tedford Seaweed for authoring this article.