Kalipinya, 2000 by Elizabeth Marks Nakamarra, 61x61cm
In this painting Elizabeth uses an individualistic style to represent a Water Dreaming and Bush Potato site known as Kalipinya in the Western Desert that she has inherited from her father. It narrates the stories of the Tingari ancestors who travelled vast stretches of the country performing rituals, which in turn brought into being the land formations of particular sites.
Elizabeth Nakamarra Marks began in the mid 1990’s. Vital to her work is the telling of women’s sacred stories – narratives that revolve around the role of the woman as healer and provider within Luritja society. Elizabeth is the niece of the highly recognized Papunya Tula artist, the late Johnny Warangkula from Kintore in Western Australia.
The natural environment surrounding Kalimbimba is dominated by expansive sandhills and the use of stratified lines also has its roots in the body paint designs worn by women during sacred ceremonies. The concentric circle depicts the campsite, and the solid small round shapes are the fire around which the women are preparing for ceremony. The larger solid shapes are where the women are grounding and preparing the ochre for the body paint, with the large curve shapes being the windbreaks made from branches, which the women construct in order to protect themselves from the harsh desert wind.