Houston, James Archibald
James Archibald Houston, artist, writer and filmmaker (Toronto, June 12, 1921 - New London, Conn., April 17, 2005.). He studied art at the Ontario College of Art in Toronto before serving in the Army during WORLD WAR II . After studying in France at the Academie de la Grande Chaumiere (1947-1948), he returned to Canada but are tired of urban life. He flew to an Inuit village in northern Quebec and pass 14 years living and traveling in the Canadian Arctic. He worked as a civil servant in Cape Dorset in the West Baffin Island. He teaches the techniques of engraving the INUIT he teaches the art in the United States and Canada. Accomplished artist himself, he was baptized by the Inuit Saumik or "left." After the decline of the fur trade, he recognizes the potential income that could generate Inuit art for people in northern communities in Canada and in 1949 he organized one of the first Inuit art major exhibitions. It works with the Canadian Guild of Crafts, the federal government and the Hudson's Bay Company to draw attention to the Inuit and their forms of crafts. He founded the West Baffin Co-operative to promote the work of Inuit artists. He recounts his life in the Arctic in Confessions of an Igloo Dweller (1995). Children's books, Tikta'liktak: An Eskimo Legend (1965 Tikta'liktak trad.), The White Archer (1967 trad The White Archer.) And River Runners (1979 trad The Daredevil of the river. Koksoak) each earned him the price of the Canadian Library Association Children's Book of the Year. He received the Canadian Authors Association Metcalf Award twice, in 1977 and 1981, the price of Children's Literature Council of the Arts in 1986, the British Columbia Book Prize in 1987 and the American Library Association Notable Book for four of its publications in 1967, 1968, 1971 and 1977. His children's book Whiteout (trans. The Great Desert white) won the Max and Greta Ebel Memorial Award in 1989 and Drifting Snow was nominated for the Governor General's Literary Award and the Silver Birch Award for the Library Association Ontario in 1992.

His children's books are divided into three categories. Some of them, like Tikta'liktak Long Claws (1981) and The Falcon Bow (1986), are expanded versions of legends that have told him Inuit. Other books describe the growth of Aboriginal youth from the West Coast. Novels as Frozen Fire (1977 trad Matt and Kayak. Adventure in the far north), River Runners (1979 trad The Daredevil of the Koksoak River.) Black Diamonds (1982), Ice Swords (1985) and Drifting Snow (1992) takes place today. Houston illustrates his own books as well as several books by other authors. His novels for adults: The White Dawn (. 1971 trad The White Dawn), Spirit Wrestler (1980) Eagle Song (1983) and Running West (1989) describe the powerful emotions generated by the clash of indigenous and traditional cultures European. He received the Canadian Authors Association Literary Award for a work of fiction for Running West in 1990.

JA Houston leaves the Arctic to settle in the United States and work as a master designer at Steuben Glass in New York. In 1992, he was honored for his 43-year career at Steuben Glass in organizing a major retrospective of his work. His sculpture, Aurora Borealis, a height of 70 feet (about 23 meters) is on permanent display at GLENBOW MUSEUM Calgary.

JA Houston receives the award from the American Indian and Eskimo Cultural Foundation in 1966, the Queen Elizabeth Silver Anniversary Medal in 1977 and the Inuit Kuavati Award of Merit in 1979. He took an active part in many national and international committees, where he is promoting the NATIVE ART . He is a member of the Royal Society of Arts and an Officer of the ORDER OF CANADA . In 1997, he was awarded the Massey Medal of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society and during his career he received numerous honorary doctorates. He designed the National Geographic Centennial Award and also won the Design Award of the Chicago Book Clinic. In 1992, he was on the list of the 125 most important Canadians 125 years of history.

Source: www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com