RED TAILS IN THE DESERT - Will careless greed overthrow my dinner table
Code: ph12-01
THE
STORY:
On a resent visit to West Australia, it was my desire to find a colony of Forest Red Tailed Black Cockatoo's. This was inspired by a childhood memory and an article I had recently read that Red Tailed Black Cockatoo's might be heading toward extinction. Visiting my old boarding school, (Hale School) in Perth for some nostalgia I was surprised by a colony enjoying a meal time in the forest canopy of gum (Eucalyptus) trees above one of the car parks. What a delight. My emotions ran high, my praise was in wonder at such magnificent creatures and then directed toward thankfulness that God had favored me to be able to have my hearts desire met. The worship of my culture was to Him for His extraordinary creative genius displayed, not only in the beauty and humor of the bird seen, but the wisdom in its diet (Eucalyptus) which is the subject of debate regarding extinction. In many cases, the unwise practices, driven by greed and unconscious knowing, that to denude the forests for our habitation and the glory of wealth without respect and replenishment of what we control is in fact a recipe for extinction of what is truly wonderful.
In this piece of art I have decided to continue to explore and include some of the art (visual) language of indigenous people and the story telling of their dream time. My contribution here is the river of life running through the center of a playground of ideas, dots. Australian Aboriginals, New Zealand Maoris, the Pacific Islanders all have a language unique to their humanness and I in no way will deliberately choose to belittle their wonder and hunger for identity but I want to include, as a Western born white (fellah) man, the wonder of their lives into my art as has been happening in the world of music for the past few decades. I am ever indebted to the Glory of God who knows culture intimately, the destructive elements in all cultures, the wonder and joys in all cultures and the need for the human spirit to worship and have culture. We are all hungry for identity and this sense of being separated from something Divine is a reality to us all, until one meets Him.
I love the vibrancy and symbolism in native arts, in particular Aboriginal dot painting. The language in Dot paintings today is recognized globally as unique and integral to Australian Aboriginal art. On the surface the dot is simply a style of Aboriginal painting, like the use of cross-hatching or stencil art used in Western art. Exploring deeper into the history of the Aboriginal dot painting a world of camouflage, secrecy and ritual is discovered. What the Aboriginal depicted in their desire to worship from culture I now use and explore the visual medium from my culture to tell the stories of what I see. I am indebted to the Great Divine for the Aboriginals wisdom in story telling and the simple use of what was at hand to make their worship visible.
This information below has been gleaned from numerous sources including:
http://www.papunyatula.com.au/history/
http://www.aboriginalartstore.com.au/aboriginal-art-culture/aboriginal-dot-paintings.php/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indigenous_Australian_art/
The term ‘dot painting’ stems from what the Western eye sees when faced with contemporary Aboriginal acrylic paintings. This painting style arose from the Papunya art movement in the 1970s. Papunya Tula (The Western Desert - South West of Alice Springs and now venturing further into West Australia) artists used a process which originally mirrored traditional spiritual ceremonies. In such rituals the soil would be cleared and smoothed over as a canvas (much like the dark, earthy boards used by the Papunya Tala) for the inscription of sacred designs, replicating movements of ancestral beings upon earth. These Dreaming designs were outlined with dancing circles and often surrounded with a mass of dots. Afterward the imprinted earth would be smoothed over, painted bodies rubbed away, masking the sacred-secrets which had taken place. The Papunya Tula painting style derives directly from the artists' knowledge of traditional body and sand painting associated with ceremony. To portray these dreamtime creation stories for the public, has required the removal of sacred symbols and the careful monitoring of ancestral designs. Today these secrets have become known to to all with modern technologies and communication systems.
Status
: LIMITED EDITION PRINTS ARE AVAILABLE UNTIL SOLD OUT
With Authentication
of Sale and value certificate, ownership details and maintenance information.
Process
: Poem typed on an iPhone, birds photographed with a Canon 7D and edited on a Mac G5 in Photoshop CS4. The photos are straight images with subtle color enhancements clear cut and positioned to suit. .
Print Materials
: See on reproduction print page..
Awards
:
