Pauline Saturgina Tardiff
Artist Story
I was born and raised the Northwest Territories. My parents were subsistence harvesters and lived on the land. Hence, my birthplace Stanton, NWT which was an outpost camp, no longer exists.
I watched my mother make all of our outdoor clothing and thus was always interested in learning to do the intricate beading and embroidery work that was so much a part of the clothing that was prevalent in my home community of Aklavik.
I consider myself an emerging artist as I was too busy with my career as a long time educator, to pursue an interest in the arts until I took early retirement from the GNWT in the summer of 2008.
I make fish scale pictures. I also make jewellery using bison horn, sheep horn, caribou antler and moose antler.
Having the opportunity to pursue and practice making traditional art I find very therapeutic. I love being outdoors and thus find a lot of the ideas for my work from that environment.