According to Marie Bouchard— a researcher, art historian, and community worker who lived in Baker Lake for many years— "Oonark's grandmother repeatedly warned her that images could come to life in the dark of night.

[1]: 10 The Danish explorer, Knud Rasmussen, crossed the Canadian Arctic by dogsled and visited the Jessie Oonark's camp when she was just a teenager during his Fifth Thule Expedition.

[7] Oonark was married at a young age to Qabluunaq, (Kabloona, Kabloonak) the son of Naatak and Nanuqluq from Gjoa Haven.

Sometime around 1953 and 1954, Kabloonak and her four youngest children died of illness[3]: 4  in the Garry Lake area when William Noah was still a child and Nancy Pukingrnak was in her early teens and they were still dependent on her.

[9][10][11] Just as it was true for the art of other first-generation Inuit artists from that area—Luke Anguhadluk and Marion Tuu'luq—Utkuhiksalingmiut oral history and legends were strongly reflected in Jessie's artwork.

[12] When Oonark first arrived in Baker Lake in 1958 she survived by "cleaning skins for her friend, Sandy Lunan, at the Hudson's Bay Company post, cooking meals, washing dishes and sewing traditional Arctic garments for local sale"[3]: 4  and eventually worked as janitor at the Anglican Church.

At that time the Department of Northern Affairs and National Resources (DIAND) established arts and crafts projects in Inuit hamlets as part of socioeconomic development (Goetz, 1985:43).

[3]: 4  The next summer in 1959, the teacher shared this comment with Canadian Wildlife Service biologist, Dr. Andrew Macpherson, who was in Baker Lake studying Arctic fox.

[3]: 5 Boris Kotelewetz, the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs' arts and crafts officer, who arrived in Baker Lake in March 1966, provided Oonark with studio space and a salary.

The stone cut print by Thomas Manik of Oonark's drawing entitled "Woman" (1970) was featured on the cover and her work was prominent in the exhibition.

[22] In 1970, the National Museum of Man in Ottawa organized a touring exhibition of 50 of Oonark's drawings and works by sculptor John Pangnark.

The print-makers who rendered Oonark's drawings into limited edition fine art prints included Thomas Sivuraq.

The printing technique in Baker Lake included colour stonecuts, stencil and lithograph on Japanese wove paper.

[15]: 155 Oonark's work illustrated a 1972 anthology of Inuit poetry from the circumpolar regions including Alaska, Canada, Greenland and Siberia 1972.

[3]: 5 In 1998, the Macdonald Stewart Art Centre presented a major exhibition with catalogue entitled Qamanittuaq (Where the River Widens): Drawings by Baker Lake Artists which including first-generation artist Jessie Oonark and the distinctive drawings of four of her children: Janet Kigusiuq, Victoria Mamnguqsualuk, Nancy Pukingrnak, and William Noah among many others.

[12] In 1994, Bernadette Driscoll-Ellgelstad, curated the exhibition entitled Northern Lights: Inuit Textile Art from Arctic Canada which included wall hangings by Jessie Oonark and her daughters, Janet Kigusiuq, Victoria Mamnguqsllaluk, her relatives Ruth Qaulluaryuk and other women from the Back River area along with artists from Baker Lake.

[26] On 18 November 2015, Oonark's 1969 wall hanging depicting a hunting scene, made of duffel, felt and embroidery floss, sold for $70,800, a new record for the Baker Lake artist.

Traditional dress, women's facial tattoos, and shamanistic themes are common in her art, yet they usually appear as isolated, fragmentary forms, shaped into a graphically bold image rather than a comprehensible narrative.

Oonark is also well known as a textile artist, whose wool and felt wall-hangings reveal her as a master of color and form.Oonark's work includes visual puns and shape-shifting,[29] descriptive works depicting clothing, tools and cultural objects of importance to the Utkuhihalingmiut as well as images based on storytelling, legends and shamanism.

[1][30] Mame Jackson, George Swinton and Jean Blodgett noted that Oonark's work reflects a high tolerance for ambiguity, a kind of double vision.

There is a story, and that is it that one whole person along with a qayak was swallowed up by some giant fish or creature or whatever – somewhere near Gjoa Haven or Back River.

When Janet Kigusiuk was still a baby, Anglican missionaries, Canon James and his Inuk assistant catechist Thomas Tapatai came to Oonark's hunting camp.

Oonark's mother and father and her mother-in-law Naatak, (Natak)[8]: 10  were storytellers[8]: 10  and these stories are richly represented in Oonark's work, such as the 1970 print entitled "Dream of the Bird Woman",[1]: 14 [34]: 105  referring to the Kiviuq (Qiviuk), an Inuk who faced dangerous obstacles in his journeys by kayak, which was described by Franz Boas as the most widely known Inuit legend in the circumpolar region.

The brilliant colours emphasize the contrasting shades of caribou skin, beautifully assembled to form a traditional design on the parka.

With this print Oonark set a style for herself to which she has remained true – strong and explicit use of line, an intelligent positioning of mass and daring choice of colour.

In 1966 Elizabeth organized a sewing projects with Oonark and others where they produced mittens, parkas, slippers, duffel socks as well as appliquéd images from scraps for sale.

[39][40]: 85 [38] In the first generation of Inuit artists working in printmaking, Oonark, together with Pitseolak Ashoona and Kenojuak were recognized quickly as significant figures, receiving solo exhibitions, scholarly attention and professional awards.

In it, they reference the important role printmaking played, especially for female artists like Oonark, Kenojuak Ashevak and Helen Kalvak, who gravitated towards visual arts, while men focused on stone-carving which required more physical strength.

[42] All her children, Janet Kigusiuq, Victoria Mamnguqsualuq Kayuryuk, Josiah Nuilalik, Nancy Pukirniq, Miriam Qiyuq, Peggy, Mary Yussipik and William Noah are artists.

[44] Oonark began to experience numbness in her hands and feet and in 1979, when a surgical intervention failed to check the symptoms, she lost much of her manual dexterity and produced only a few more pieces afterwards.