I found a photograph of this mask in a book, American Primitive, that I purchased in a second hand shop in 2015. On opening the page and finding this mask I was immediately struck by its inventiveness and extraordinary beauty.

It has gone on to inspire much of my recent work.

The Inuit used incredible innovation in making such masks with the limited resources they had to hand and it reminds me that I should never limit my making by needing certain items that I then have to go out and buy but that I should get into the mindset of the Inuit artist and make use of the resources I have to hand.

The mask was once owned by Andre Breton and was sold when his collection was sold.