Lew Jobs

Lew Jobs is an Inuvialuk artist born in Tuktuuyaqtuuq (Tuktoyaktuk), Inuvialuit Settlement Region, NT, and is currently based in the Edmonton, AB, area. He is a self-taught artist who is known for his inuksuit sculptures. Jobs often incorporates other materials and imagery into these steatite sculptures, representing bears, buffalo and dreamcatchers in stained glass or metal work, which he inserts into the centre of the inuksuit.  

Jobs was inspired to pick up sculpting after reconnecting with his family in Tuktuuyaqtuuq. He was fascinated by the skills of his relatives Fred Gruben, Ronnie Gruben and Don Gruben, and their ability to turn a piece of stone into a creation from their imaginations. He experimented on and off for several years, but his family encouraged him to keep trying, telling him he could be considered a master sculptor after consistently sculpting for five years. “It made me feel legitimate when I had other [Inuit] carvers say, ‘Look, you’re good,’” says Jobs. [1] “That’s really what I needed.” Jobs began to focus on sculpture in 2022 while working with the Sixties Scoop Indigenous Society of Alberta. The organization provided stone to him and he taught himself how to sculpt by remembering what he learned from his uncles and cousins. “As a Sixties Scoop [survivor],” Jobs says, he felt he “couldn’t identify as Inuk,” but he sees sculpting as a way to connect with and express his Inuit identity. “I started carving [Inuksuit] basically as my way of identifying that I’m Inuk and these are some of my creations,” he says. 

Jobs creates all his pieces using hand tools, such as files, rasps and hacksaw blades, but is also learning how to use Dremel tools. “A lot of what I have been doing is trial and error and just letting my imagination run a little wild and seeing what I can come up with,” he says about his work to date and his process of experimentation. “I don’t have any carving workshops out here [in the Edmonton area] put on by Inuit that I can go attend.” However, Jobs himself taught a sculpting workshop at Lethbridge College in 2022, and is passionate about passing the knowledge he has accrued to the next generation. “I don’t have a lot of cultural background so to speak,” he says. “I don’t speak our language [and] I didn’t grow up in our community, so I don’t have that to pass on to our kids, but [sculpting] helps us to identify as [Inuit] and people can identify with us.”