Inuvialuit artist reflects on illustrating Freddie the Flyer book

Andrea Loreen-Wulf grew up in Inuvik and was eager to display the Arctic skies

Growing up in the Beaufort Delta, Andrea Loreen-Wulf remembers taking to the air in Fred Carmichael’s plane.

No matter what the weather, cargo or how many people needed to fly, she said his aircraft was always ready to go.

“He flew people everywhere, in any condition,” she said. “We all knew Fred. A lot of people have their places in the bush — favourite place to hunt or get berries.

“He was a very important guy to everyone.”

Years later, when the established Inuvialuit artist, now based out of Salmon Arm, was asked to illustrate ‘Freddie the Flyer,’ by author Danielle Metcalfe-Chenail and Carmichael himself, Loreen-Wulf couldn’t resist the opportunity to spread her own wings.

Freddie the Flyer is a children’s book about Carmichael’s journey to the skies, written to inspire children to chase their dreams. It was awarded the first Readers’ Choice Award through the Atlantic Book Awards and has been added to the Dolly Parton Imagination Library.

Traditionally a painter, Loreen-Wulf said the transition to illustrating a book was an interesting one.

“I was so excited,” she said. “Tundra Books gave me a few pages of written comments about parts of the story, written in paragraphs. I was to illustrate that paragraph. It’s a little bit different — you can’t just go off into the sunset and do whatever. You have to explain what’s being said in the book.

“Some parts were a little more difficult, where this little boy is in the thought process, not wanting to be in school, thinking of other things,” she said. “Those kind of thoughts are a little more difficult to illustrate versus somebody chopping wood or touching a plane.”

With a children’s book under her belt, Loreen-Wulf said she’s eager for the next challenge, whatever that may be.

In the interim, she said she still has plenty of painting projects on the go.

“I would love to illustrate another novel, but someone’s got to ask me,” she said. “I’m not known well, except in the North.

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