My dot painting
One of the most wonderful things we did while at Uluru was to take several walks and workshops with Anangu Tours, run by the local aboriginal community. My favorite was the Dot Painting Workshop.
We spent over an hour learning about dot painting: the symbols used in the paintings; the switch from traditional pigments on stone to acrylic on canvas; how the colors are meaningful but differ from painting to painting; and that many of the paintings are maps or textbooks, or just tell stories. Then we got a chance to make our own small paintings. We were encouraged to tell a personal story of our own.
Tod’s dot painting
Independently, Tod & I told the exact same story. We had our own ways of telling the tale, but it’s the same one, despite how our canvases don’t match. Can you tell what it is? I can give you a hint: the C shaped curves indicate people (it’s the shape left behind when a person sitting cross-legged in the dirt gets up) and circles symbolise places.
Posted by kuri at January 17, 2006 09:55 PMI likes.
Posted by: UltraBob on January 17, 2006 10:25 PMThey are AWESOME!!! Can you teach me? Now I think that is one type of art even I could manage.
BTW I think the story is that when you drew the paintings, everybody was in different places in Australia. Or it is an itinery of the trip for the different parties in our happy band of travellers.
Posted by: T on January 18, 2006 02:24 PM