Yellowknife artist Margeaux Guile’s design can be found on Purolator’s holiday boxes this year.
For the past few years, the shipping company has selected an artist from each province and territory to design a limited-edition shipping box. In 2021, Behchokǫ̀ artist Morgan Zoe was featured, and before that in 2020 Fort Smith’s Melanie Jewell had her art showcased on the boxes.
This year, artists were asked to depict families and communities sharing food and company over the holiday season in their designs.
“I was thinking about gathering together, and how we all have to brave the cold and people get creative with the ways they use to meet up with each other,” said Guile, who illustrated people using snowmobiles, skis, and kick sleds to get to their gatherings.
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She said she also tried to represent as much of the NWT as she could through different food and animals, including the territory’s infamous ravens.
“When you have food outside, there are going to be ravens picking at it,” she laughed.
“I’ve shown traditional foods gathered in the winter and orange light spilling out of the cabin to show the warmth we seek when we gather together in the winter,” Guile described in a write-up about her work. “People are shown baking, playing cards and enjoying snacks together. I also highlighted gatherings in small places that occur when no one wants to be outside.”
She said the opportunity to design a holiday box was very exciting and unexpected, saying, “It’s a great opportunity to be up there with all these great artists from across Canada.”
As part of the holiday campaign this year, Purolator is also donating to food banks across the country, including giving $5,000 to Yellowknife’s Salvation Army.
“No one should go hungry in our community and because of rising costs, the demands on our services have never been greater,” Lieutenant Jason Brinson, the Salvation Army’s executive director, was quoted as saying.
