"The suite of Animal Head drawings was realized during a residency at the Kinngait Studios in Cape Dorset during the end of 2012. Spearheaded by TD Canada Trust, I was given the unique opportunity to work alongside artists such as Tim Pitsiulak, Itee Pootoogook, Jutai Toonoo, and Shuvinai Ashoona. During my stay, I also had the privilege of engaging and making a short video with high school students.

Animal Heads are drawings that have been inspired by Inuit lore and mythology that focus on notions of transformation. Transformation, for me is a process that allows an entity to become empowered by changing into and taking on traits of more powerful beings. The gestural and restated marks in these images emphasize the act of shape shifting and depict the becoming of strangely hybridized creatures. The highly stylized and graphic linear quality of stone cut prints made at the Kinngait Print Studio also showed their influence."- Ed Pien