Lucassie Mikkigak
Born August 19, 1981 (Cape Dorset, Nunavut)
Lucassie Mikkigak is the son of artists Ohotaq and Quanaq Mikkigak. Lucassie works with serpentine, a very hard stone from the same family as jade. Lucassie carves a variety of sculptures such as bears, walruses and birds. Each is well balanced and have an elegant fluidity.
This artist takes pride in carving the traditional way; by getting his stones himself which he finds in the open sky mines, on Baffin Island. Lucassie takes the greatest care in the choice of his stones. Therefore, he his known for his sculptures, which are made out of the finest serpentine, abundant in different shades of green. His sculptures are then smoothed and polished, in order to better show the brilliance of the stone. Serpentine is a rock similar in composition to jade. It is a very hard stone, so it requires a lot of artistic vitality to carve.