GALLERY OF MY ARTWORK - SOME IS STILL AVAILABLE FOR SALE
I grew up being artistic and creative, but I never had a burning desire to paint until I visited Arnhemland and experienced a kind of awakening in my soul. I suddenly realised that I had stories to tell. The first stories I needed to paint were about my time on their land, a land still vibrantly alive with meaning and mystery. The first painting came to me on my very first morning on their land. I sat on the side of the road waiting for a lift into the Yolngu community of Yirrkala. All around me the red dirt was peppered with tiny spherical balls, equally red. This is the raw bauxite that is mined not so far away and processed to make aluminium. Next to the red dotted earth was the vibrant green grass bejewelled with dew drops, each sparkling with irridescent rainbows.This was the first painting I wanted to paint. Then it was like a deluge of pictures rushing through my mind. My time in Arnhemland was like an unfolding or unpacking of everything I had taken for granted about my own culture. I had to start viewing the world and the people existing on it in new and unexpected ways. Not only that, I began to view my own culture and my own history differently. I had come far enough away from my own culture to be able to view it in a completely different light.
The Yolngu use a word; GANMA. Ganma is a place and a concept, a metaphor that is taken from the environment. Ganma is a place in an estuary where the tidal salt waters meet the fresh river water as it flows down into the sea. They Yolngu know that this is a dangerous place with the two watery forces pushing and pulling against each other. They also know that this is a very creative, fertile place where many creatures, including crocodiles, reproduce. The identities of the fresh water and the salt water mingle here, but there are still pools of fresh and salt water in amongst the brackish water. They use ganma as a metaphor to help them think and talk about how cultures should mix and mingle, sharing their knowledge and understanding whilst still retaining their identities as distinctly separate ways of being, like the salt and fresh water. In this way, they say, a mix that can be socially dangerous is able to become a place of vibrant creativity and potential. I still love this metaphor and the way of thinking that produced it. The Yolngu are an incredible nation of people who exist within a culture that is many thousands of years old. At the same time they have a willingness to engage with the more "modern" European cultures that now live in Australia and further afield. They want to benefit from the mix, but they also want everyone else to benefit from their knowledge and understanding.
I loved finding out about the history of the Yolngu, both ancient and modern. At the same time I was acutely aware of the absence of ancient knowledge about my own environment back home in the UK. I knew some of the stories of our ancient isles, but I never really understood before how intelligent and complex our ancient people may have been. I never appreciated the possible meanings of the shapes and symbols that have been etched into rocks all over our lands. I needed to connect with the ochre colours of my own history and make some kind of connection between that and my present place in a modern scientific culture. This is the journey I am currently on.
The Yolngu use a word; GANMA. Ganma is a place and a concept, a metaphor that is taken from the environment. Ganma is a place in an estuary where the tidal salt waters meet the fresh river water as it flows down into the sea. They Yolngu know that this is a dangerous place with the two watery forces pushing and pulling against each other. They also know that this is a very creative, fertile place where many creatures, including crocodiles, reproduce. The identities of the fresh water and the salt water mingle here, but there are still pools of fresh and salt water in amongst the brackish water. They use ganma as a metaphor to help them think and talk about how cultures should mix and mingle, sharing their knowledge and understanding whilst still retaining their identities as distinctly separate ways of being, like the salt and fresh water. In this way, they say, a mix that can be socially dangerous is able to become a place of vibrant creativity and potential. I still love this metaphor and the way of thinking that produced it. The Yolngu are an incredible nation of people who exist within a culture that is many thousands of years old. At the same time they have a willingness to engage with the more "modern" European cultures that now live in Australia and further afield. They want to benefit from the mix, but they also want everyone else to benefit from their knowledge and understanding.
I loved finding out about the history of the Yolngu, both ancient and modern. At the same time I was acutely aware of the absence of ancient knowledge about my own environment back home in the UK. I knew some of the stories of our ancient isles, but I never really understood before how intelligent and complex our ancient people may have been. I never appreciated the possible meanings of the shapes and symbols that have been etched into rocks all over our lands. I needed to connect with the ochre colours of my own history and make some kind of connection between that and my present place in a modern scientific culture. This is the journey I am currently on.