Utopian Aboriginal Art Website

THE POWER OF PLACE

2008-03-03T10:42:01Z

Dreamtime refers to the time of the creation of all things while dreaming refers to man’s or woman’s set of beliefs or spirituality. It is the law of religion and social behavior and the spiritual forces sustaining life on the land. During the Dreamtime all life and form was created by spiritual Creation Ancestors. The spiritual Ancestors took forms including human, plant and animal and travelled all over the land performing ceremonies and singing. Once their work was done, the Ancestor Spirits changed again - into animals, stars, hills or other forms. In the desert region of central Australia the Ancestors left their spirit in stone objects and sites which are sacred to the initiated men. The Alyawarr and Anmatyerr pass their Dreamings down to the younger men and women through sacred ceremonies telling stories and performing songs, dances and rituals. This system of beliefs is known as the Altyerre to the Anmatyarre and Alyawarre people of the Central Desert region. The Power of Place is a celebration of Land seen through the art of the Anmatyarr and Alyawarr people of the Eastern Desert region, NT. The exhibition includes new iconographic and geometric ceremonial paintings from the senior male artists from this region - Cowboy Louie Pwerle, Freddy Kngwarreye Jones, Charlie Petyarre Jones and Sandy Pitjara Hunter - honouring the ancient and enduring ideology of the Dreaming (Altyerre). The artists depict the Dreaming of their Ancestors - the journeys, actions, sacred objects, designs and sites associated with their Ancestors. These paintings reflect some of the ground markings used during the men’s ceremonies. However some stories and ground markings are considered to be of a secret or sacred nature and only to be told or shown to an initiated male. The artists use iconography and abstract imagery to depict the sacred ceremony and the sacred site where that dreaming occurs and where the power is still all pervasive. A Dreaming name such as Kangaroo Dreaming is a Dreamtime being, a site associated with that Dreaming and the country surrounding that site. The symbols or signs denote places and sites or the tracks and pathways of the Ancestor. For the women dreamtime stories are passed down through the generations through ceremonies during which the women’s bodies are painted in linear strokes of ochres and white and the stories are sung to the young initiates. This is called making Awelye. Song, dance, body and story – the media of the Women’s Law - are explored through the paintings of the contemporary women like Susan Pitjara Hunter, Joy Kngwarreye Jones, Mary Kemarre Morton, Lucky Kngwarreye Morton. These women have stories that they tell only among themselves. Younger or unmarried women are not permitted to hear these stories, and to tell them or permit them to be told to the ‘wrong’ person is against law. For the Alyawarr and the Anmatyarr, the past is still alive and vital today and the Ancestor Spirits and their powers are present in the forms into which they changed at the end of the 'Dreamtime' or 'Dreaming', as the stories reveal.

Altyerr: Dreamtime, dreaming and its relationship to the art of the Power of Place at Tandanya

2008-03-03T10:31:57Z

Dreamtime refers to the time of the creation of all things while dreaming refers to man’s or woman’s set of beliefs or spirituality. It is the law of religion and social behavior and the spiritual forces sustaining life on the land. During the Dreamtime all life and form was created by spiritual Creation Ancestors. The spiritual Ancestors took forms including human, plant and animal and travelled all over the land performing ceremonies and singing. Once their work was done, the Ancestor Spirits changed again - into animals, stars, hills or other forms. In the desert region of central Australia the Ancestors left their spirit in stone objects and sites which are sacred to the initiated men. The Alyawarr and Anmatyerr pass their Dreamings down to the younger men and women through sacred ceremonies telling stories and performing songs, dances and rituals. This system of beliefs is known as the Altyerre to the Anmatyarre and Alyawarre people of the Central Desert region. Photo:Mark Rogers, www.markrogers.com.au The Power of Place is a celebration of Land seen through the art of the Anmatyarr and Alyawarr people of the Eastern Desert region, NT. The exhibition includes new iconographic and geometric ceremonial paintings from the senior male artists from this region - Cowboy Louie Pwerle, Freddy Kngwarreye Jones, Charlie Petyarre Jones and Sandy Pitjara Hunter - honouring the ancient and enduring ideology of the Dreaming (Altyerre). The artists depict the Dreaming of their Ancestors - the journeys, actions, sacred objects, designs and sites associated with their Ancestors. These paintings reflect some of the ground markings used during the men’s ceremonies. However some stories and ground markings are considered to be of a secret or sacred nature and only to be told or shown to an initiated male. The artists use iconography and abstract imagery to depict the sacred ceremony and the sacred site where that dreaming occurs and where the power is still all pervasive. A Dreaming name such as Kangaroo Dreaming is a Dreamtime being, a site associated with that Dreaming and the country surrounding that site. The symbols or signs denote places and sites or the tracks and pathways of the Ancestor. For the women dreamtime stories are passed down through the generations through ceremonies during which the women’s bodies are painted in linear strokes of ochres and white and the stories are sung to the young initiates. This is called making Awelye. Song, dance, body and story – the media of the Women’s Law - are explored through the paintings of the contemporary women like Susan Pitjara Hunter, Joy Kngwarreye Jones, Mary Kemarre Morton, Lucky Kngwarreye Morton. These women have stories that they tell only among themselves. Younger or unmarried women are not permitted to hear these stories, and to tell them or permit them to be told to the ‘wrong’ person is against law. For the Alyawarr and the Anmatyarr, the past is still alive and vital today and the Ancestor Spirits and their powers are present in the forms into which they changed at the end of the 'Dreamtime' or 'Dreaming', as the stories reveal.

Footy at Red Gum, MacDonald Downs

2008-03-03T07:19:35Z

Photo: Mark Rogers. www.markrogers.com.au Sport is very important to the Alyawarr and Anmatyerr people. Teams from all over the Northern Territory come to Red Gum (on the northern end of MacDonald Downs bordering Utopia) to play throughout the winter months. While the men compete on the football oval, the younger women love to play softball nearby and the older women look after the children, do some painting and socialise.

RSS Feeds

2007-07-18T06:00:58Z

The Utopian Aboriginal Art Website also allows users to subscribe to RSS Feeds. RSS feeds allow you to see when sections of the Utopian Aboriginal Art Website have added new content. You can get the latest Artists, Artworks and News in one place, as soon as it is published, without having to visit the Utopian Aboriginal Art Website.

Support Us

2007-05-16T06:32:21Z

Please support the hard work we are doing here with the Utopia Community Project and our website Utopian Aboriginal Art by linking to us online from your website.

Supporter Referral Logos

To link to us, please contact us for instructions on how to access our referral logos below: Logo 1:
Proud supporter of the Utopia Community Project and Utopian Aboriginal Art Logo 2:
Proud supporter of the Utopia Community Project and Utopian Aboriginal Art

Supporter Referral Text

Please contact us for instructions on how to create text only based referrals also. Please don't hesitate to contact us on the details below if you have any further enquiries!

Shopping and Online Security

2006-12-16T13:12:22Z

The following policy applies to all transactions through the Utopian Aboriginal Art Shopping Cart or purchases of art works from Sonja Chalmers trading as Eastern Desert Art. It should be read in conjunction with the Terms and Conditions of the Website. Ordering goods through the Utopian Aboriginal Art Shopping Cart You can order goods from the Utopian Aboriginal Art Shopping Cart in three ways:

by placing an order online and using your credit card over our secure e-commerce link to pay for the goods
by placing an order online and transferring money into Sonja Chalmers' bank account or
by placing an order online and posting a cheque to Sonja Chalmers

All contracts of sale are governed by the laws of the Northern Territory, Australia. Security when you order online We are highly confident of the quality and security of our e-commerce facility and recommend this method of payment and ordering. This allows us to offer the best level of speed, accuracy and security in our service to you. Credit card numbers provided through our e-commerce facility are processed in an encrypted form (using SSL 128-bit encryption) over a secure link and are not stored permanently. This provides a high level of security protection for our customers. The secure link is provided by our payment gateway service provider Netregistry and the transaction is processed by the National Australia Bank, one of Australia's largest and longest established banks. More information about the system is available from the Netregistry Web site at www.netregistry.com.au. The Firefox, Netscape and the Microsoft Internet Explorer browsers have built-in security mechanisms to ensure that users do not accidentally submit personal information over an insecure link. If a user tries to submit information to an unsecured site, the browsers will, by default, show a warning. In contrast, if a user submits credit card or other information to a site with a valid Server ID and an SSL connection, the warning does not appear and the secure connection is seamless. Users of the Utopian Aboriginal Art website can be sure that online transactions with our site are secure by looking for the following signs:

The URL in the browser window displays "https" at the beginning of a transaction instead of http
In Internet Explorer (IE), a padlock icon appears in the bar at the bottom of the IE window. IE users can check the Web site's encryption level by following these steps: right-click on the Website's page and select Properties, then click the Certificates button. In the Fields box, select "Encryption type" - the Details box shows you the level of encryption (40-bit or 128-bit)
In the Netscape browser, the padlock in the lower left corner of the Navigator window will be closed instead of open. Netscape users can check what level of encryption is protecting their transactions by using the Security button in the browser's toolbar

Guarantee of safe online shopping The details of our online shopping guarantee are as follows:

For customers in Australia, your bank cannot hold you liable for more than AUD $50 of fraudulent charges to your credit card. If your bank does hold you liable for any of this AUD $50, Eastern Desert Art will cover the entire liability for you, up to the full AUD $50.
For customers in the USA, under the US Fair Credit Billing Act, your bank cannot hold you liable for more than US $50 of fraudulent charges to your credit card. If your bank does hold you liable for any of this US $50, Eastern Desert Art will cover the entire liability for you, up to the full US $50.
We will cover this liability only if the unauthorised use of your credit card resulted through no fault of your own from purchases made on the Utopian Aboriginal Art website while using our secure e-commerce service.
In the event of unauthorised use of your credit card, you must notify your credit card provider in accordance with its reporting rules and procedures. To obtain a refund from us of any charges made to you by your bank, you will need to provide us with documentary evidence of that charge and evidence that you reported the unauthorised use in the manner required by the bank.

Mailing List

2006-12-13T13:55:39Z

Be the first to know about upcoming exhibitions, sales notices and news information from the Utopian Aboriginal Art website, the Utopia Community Project and Eastern Desert Art. Subscribe to our Utopian Aboriginal Art Community mailing list!

Subscribe to the Utopian Aboriginal Art Community mailing list

Simply type your name and email address into the following text boxes and click the 'Subscribe' button. You will receive a confirmation email before you are subscribed from the Utopian Aboriginal Art Community mailing list. Alternatively, you can send an email to the following email address aboriginalart-join@utopianaboriginalart.com.au from your email inbox.

Payment Options

2006-12-02T09:23:40Z

Eastern Desert Art offers a number of payment options to make purchasing Aboriginal Art through us as easy as possible. All of our payment options options have been designed to be as safe and secure as possible. Our site uses excellent security. You can be sure your transaction is 100% safe. The payment options presently available on the Utopian Aboriginal Art website are:

Credit Cards
Direct Transfers (Electronic Funds Transfers)
Cheque

Credit Cards We accept all major Australian credit and charge cards including Visa, MasterCard, Bankcard. Amex and Diners are also available. Eastern Desert Art does not store your credit card details at any stage, other than during the processing of your purchase. We use only Australian Industry recognised transaction Encryption and Payment Gateway Technology. To help protect you, we use the international standard SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) security, which is the most secure way to send credit card details over the Internet. SSL works with Netscape Navigator / Microsoft Internet Explorer versions 3.02 or higher. It is automatic, and you will receive instant notification if your browser does not support SSL. When you access a secure page in Internet Explorer a small padlock will appear at the bottom of your browser (for Netscape, the key at the bottom will be blue and unbroken), where you can verify our company and encryption level. Please note that Eastern Desert Art reserves the right to ask for proof of identity on all Credit Card Orders. Direct Transfers (Electronic Funds Transfers) Direct Bank Transfer purchases are available. When you proceed to the checkout select the Bank Transfer payment option, and follow the payment option information carefully. Orders made using the Bank Transfer option will not be despatched until we have received confirmation of the Bank Transfer. Cheque Cheque purchases are available for Australian customers only. When you proceed to the checkout select the Cheque payment option, and follow the payment option information carefully. Please make all Cheques payable to Eastern Desert Art, and in Australian Dollars. Orders made using the Cheque option will not be despatched until we have received the Cheque and it has been cleared or verified by our Bank. Please see our Terms and Conditions for more information.

Terms & Conditions

2006-10-28T11:06:24Z

Assurance and Warranty Eastern Desert Art specialises in certified Aboriginal paintings. All Aboriginal paintings are purchased directly from our local Aboriginal artists and are accompanied by a unique Certificate of Authenticity. Insurance and Delivery All paintings are packed with care in highly durable casings and are sent overnight express service. Artworks bought from the website for delivery within Australia and overseas will be delivered free of charge. Delivery Process When we receive your order we will reply by email within 24 hours to confirm your purchase order has been processed. If you are sending a cheque we will contact you again once the funds have been cleared. We will deliver the painting to our courier within 48 hours of purchase funds being cleared. Delivery within Australia All paintings are sent through TNT Express a leading provider of express delivery services. TNT provides on-demand, time-definite and day-certain delivery of documents, parcels and freight. As a client of this company we are provided with tracking numbers which enable us to track the journey of the painting to your door. The painting is delivered to your door within 1-2 weeks and all insurance is covered by us. Delivery International We will freight the un-stretched painting to anywhere in the world. All International orders are sent through TNT Express a leading provider of express delivery services. TNT provides on-demand, time-definite and day-certain delivery of documents, parcels and freight. As a client of this company we are provided with tracking numbers which enable us to track the journey of the painting to your door. The painting is delivered to your door within 1-2 weeks and all insurance is covered by us. Packaging Each painting will be individually wrapped in tissue paper and bubble wrap inserted into cylinders with the accompanying documentation. Insurance is optional. Delivery Address Please make sure that at the delivery address you nominate you or a representative will be available to accept and sign for the package. Otherwise you will be left a calling card to advise you on how to collect your package. If there is any problem with the work when you receive it please contact us by email, fax or letter advising us of your concerns within 5 working days. We will then take the necessary action to rectify the problem. Free Delivery Eastern Desert Art will send your un-stretched painting to anywhere in the world free of charge. Duties & Taxes - GST All prices listed by Eastern Desert Art are GST exclusive. Purchases delivered within Australia are subject to the Australian GST (Goods and Service Tax). All prices shown include GST. International buyers are exempt from the Australian GST. If other duties and/or taxes apply specific to the overseas destination then the buyer is liable for these charges. Currency Our prices are in Australian Dollars AUS $AU. Payment Methods We accept Visa, MasterCard, Bankcard, American Express and Diners credit cards. We also accept cheques and Money Orders made payable to Eastern Desert Art and mailed to: Eastern Desert Art, Private Mailbag 5, Alice Springs, NT. 0872. Pricing We believe our prices to be extremely competitive and fairly priced. If you wish to buy a quantity of work we will be happy to discuss a discount with you. Return of Goods and Refunds Eastern Desert Art will refund the purchase price of your painting provided you contact us within seven days of receiving the work. You must advise us why you want to return the painting and it must be returned in its original condition. As the painting will be at your risk until we receive it we recommend you insure it. Unless the return is a result of our error, the cost of returning an unwanted painting to Eastern Desert Art shall be at the purchasers expense. Once we receive the painting and it is in original condition we will contact you to advise of your refund.

Our Artists

2006-10-28T11:04:19Z

The central desert region of Utopia has produced such great artists as Emily Kame Kngwarreye and Gloria Petyarre and is now celebrating a resurgence with other greats - Mary Kemarre Morton, Kathleen Ngala, Angelina Pwerle Ngala, Gladdy Kemarre, Susie Pitjara Hunter, Joy Kngwarreye Jones and Dolly Petyarre Mills. There are talented artists among many of the local families including:

Kngwarreye family (Joy, Freddy and Charlie) traditional and abstract painters (National Gallery of Victoria and Holmes a Court Collection)
Ngala sisters (Kathleen, Polly and Angeline) abstract (National Galleries, private collections.
Pitjara (Petyarre) family (Susie and Sandy) traditional (Susie - National Gallery of Australia, Holmes a Court)
Kemarre (Glady and
Morton Kemarre (Mary and Lucky) Abstract – exhibited all over Australia

Continue reading about Utopian Aboriginal Art's artists. (Photo: Artist Annie Hunter, © Eastern Desert Art)

Utopia Project

2006-10-28T08:23:35Z

Eastern Desert Art was established as part of the Utopia Community Project, an exciting initiative that aims to assist the traditional Aboriginal land owners re-establish part of Utopia as a cattle station. A proportion of profits for every painting sold will assist in this endeavour. This initiative came about when the Aboriginal Elders and the Chalmers began discussions to lease a portion of Utopia. We are now working together with Cowboy Louie Pwerle and his people on Utopia to establish a viable property within a few years. This year we are beginning an immense fundraising campaign for the next stage in our Utopia cattle project. We intend to raise substantial funds - through the art business and other sources - to commence a large scale cattle project for the community of Utopia. The Project will be

1. Cattle Yard: the erection of a cattle yard equipped with troughs, a sprinkler system, drafting lanes to accommodate 500 cattle.

2. Hay Shed: Build a hay shed adjacent to the yards to store several tonnes of cattle and calf feed

3. Erect a paddock equipped with a grid and gate

To begin the process, Eastern Desert Art is donating 50 cattle (approx $25,000) to the Project. To accelerate the process we are looking to government and business to support us in our endeavours. We will reinvest a proportion of the profit from the sale of these paintings and from any exhibitions to this project. You will be supporting this project by purchasing any artwork from Utopian Aboriginal Art. If you are interested in talking about this project or wish to make a donation to the Utopian Project please send us an email: info@utopianaboriginalart.com (Photo: Building Fences at Utopia, © Eastern Desert Art)

About Us

2006-10-28T08:19:25Z

Eastern Desert Art and the Utopian Aboriginal Art website is an Australian outback Aboriginal online art gallery representing the work of significant Aboriginal artists from the eastern desert and Utopia region (Angarapa) of central Australia, 250kms north east of Alice Springs. Eastern Desert Art is run by Sonja Chalmers and Charlie Chalmers on the neighbouring property – MacDonald Downs – 285kms north east of Alice Springs. Our relationship with the Aboriginal people extends back three generations. Many of the Aboriginal artists who these days live on Utopia were born and grew up on MacDonald Downs alongside our family. Eastern Desert Art has been established as part of the Utopia community project, an exciting initiative that aims to assist the traditional Aboriginal land owners re-establish part of Utopia as a cattle station. A proportion of profits for every painting sold will assist in employment, training and land management programs for the community. We invite you to purchase a beautiful Utopian Aboriginal painting at our online Aboriginal art gallery and please don't hesitate to contact us with any enquiries about the work we are doing here in Utopia. (Photo: Sonja Chalmers with artist Freddie Jones, © Eastern Desert Art)

Authentic Art

2006-10-28T08:11:02Z

Eastern Desert Art guarantees that all artworks shown on our website are authentic with provenance assured. Our provenance is required for the collector’s resale. We supply signed and dated Authenticity Certificates and provide an explanation of the painting along with a photograph of the artist with the work. The artist also provides a short explanation his or her work.

The Certificate of Authenticity

Each painting is provided with a certificate of authenticity printed on high quality archival paper. Our Certificate of Authenticity contains the following:

Picture of the artist
Title of the work
Catalogue number
Size of the work
Medium
Date
The Director’s signature
The Eastern Desert Art seal

Art History

2006-10-28T07:47:53Z

In the mid 70s when Utopia became an Aboriginal freehold property the Alyawarr and Anmatyerr people moved from the surrounding pastoral stations to settle in camps on the north western part of Utopia. The Aboriginal art movement began on Utopia around this time with the introduction of the Utopia Women's Batik activities. The women were initially taught tie-dying and batiking T-shirts before venturing into the silk medium. The most senior woman - Emily Kame Kngwarreye - was a founding member of this group. She has since been acclaimed as the most important central Australian artist of her generation. The first major community project initiated by the Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association (CAAMA) and Rodney Gooch resulted in an exhibition of 88 batiks, up to three metres in length which was acquired by the Robert Holmes a Court Collection in 1988. This collection of batiks entitled Utopia – A Picture Story was shown in Adelaide, Sydney, Perth, Melbourne and travelled to Ireland, Germany, Paris and Bangkok. The second project initiated by CAAMA in 1988-9 was the women's first experience in painting on canvas. One hundred uniformly sized canvases were stretched, primed and distributed to the artists. Of the eighty artists who were involved in this project, the majority worked in the traditional colours of black, white, ochre and red. They produced an extraordinary body of work entitled – Utopia Women's Paintings - the First Works on Canvas - A Summer Project 1988-9 which was exhibited at the S.H. Erwin Gallery in Sydney and Orange Grove Regional Gallery, NSW, Australia. Further projects initiated by Rodney Gooch and CAAMA included The Body Paint - Awelye - collection, The Watercolour Collection, 1989, the CAAMA/Utopia Artists-in-Residence Project Louie Pwerle and Emily Kame Kngwarreye 1989-90 and One Dreaming (Yam Story) in 1992. Thus the artists had made the transition from batik to acrylic on canvas and linen and Utopian art was launched onto the international stage. The demand for paintings from the artists of Utopia continues and artists have exhibited throughout Europe including France, Germany, The Netherlands, Belgium, England, Italy, Japan and U.S.A. Utopia artists are represented in many public collections in state and regional galleries all over Australia.

Iconography in desert art

A Dreaming name denotes a Dreamtime being, a site associated with that Dreaming and the country surrounding that site. Woodrow W. Denham, Alyawarre Ethnographic Archive Central desert Aboriginal art depicts the Dreaming of their Ancestors. The artist paints the journeys, actions, sacred objects, designs and sites associated with their Ancestors. The artists use iconography and abstract imagery to depict the sacred ceremony or the site pertaining to that dreaming. The paintings refer to the sacred sites where the Dreaming occurs and where the power is still all pervasive. The symbols or signs denote places and sites or the tracks and pathways of the Ancestor. The Dreamings, often painted from an aerial perspective are abstract in form and lend themselves to various interpretations – the sacred and the public. Widely used imagery includes for example, concentric circles usually represent a group of people or site or place, a campsite or a water/rockhole. These are places of great significance. The u-shapes can represent the sitting figure and the indentation they leave with their haunches. Tracks of the Ancestral beings and animals are represented by meandering or straight lines. Arcs can represent boomerangs. Short straight lines represent digging sticks or clapping sticks and spears. A morass of dots can represent the topography of the artist's country or homeland.

Dot painting

There are several theories on the origination of the dot-style of painting. One theory is that they imitate the markings for the ground ceremonial paintings. These ephemeral works are fashioned out of daubed dots of ochres and bird down and other materials. Spinifex, bushes, shrubs and other clumped grasses form a dot-like pattern across the desert landscape resulting in a dotted landscape when viewed from above. The Aboriginal views his country - his ancestral sites - from this aerial perspective. (Photo: Artist Sandy Pitjara Hunter, © Eastern Desert Art)

Utopia Dreaming

2006-10-28T07:46:46Z

Dreamtime is a theory of the Universe...The Dreamtime is a description and an explanation of how it is that things are as they are, and a user's manual for operating and maintaining the Universe in accordance with that description. It is the Law...This term which encompasses the entire conceptual system based on the (Altyerre) Dreamings and the churinga (sacred objects) is one of the world's great conceptual systems, accommodating virtually the entire intellectual universe of its believers. Woodrow Denham, Alyawarra Ethnographic Archive Dreaming (Altyerre) refers to a set of beliefs or spirituality. It is the law of religion and social behaviors, the land and the spiritual forces sustaining life. The Dreamings are passed down to the younger men and women through sacred ceremonies. Dreaming stories explain the concept of matter and life. According to traditional belief, the stories were created a very long time ago during the Dreamtime period or creation time by the spiritual Creation Ancestors. It was during this time that day, sky, stars, fire, air, water, land and all life was created. The Spiritual Ancestors took all manner of forms including human, plant and animal. During the Dreamtime period the Ancestors travelled all over the land performing ceremonies and singing. In the desert region of central Australia the Ancestors left their spirit in objects (churinga) of wood and stone and sites which are sacred to the initiated men. This system of beliefs is known as the Altyerre, to the Anmatyarr and to the Alyawarr people of the Central Desert region. Dreaming sites are places where Dreamtime beings 'jumped up' or created waterholes and other features, or 'went down' into the ground again. These places are very specific spots on the ground that can be plotted clearly on topographic maps. Each Dreaming site contains a collection of objects left there by the Dreamtime being who stopped there. Woodrow Denham, Alyawarra Ethnographic Archive Dreamtime stories are passed down through the generations through ceremonies during which the women’s bodies are painted in linear strokes of ochres and white and the stories are sung to the initiates. This is called making Awelye and contemporary women painters like Susan Pitjara Hunter, Joy Kngwarreye Jones, Mary Kemarre Morton, Lucky Kngwarreye Morton explore these sacred body marks through abstraction in their painting. On the other hand the Anmatyarre and Alyawarre men such as Sandy Pitjara Hunter, Freddy Kngwarreye Jones and Cowboy Louie Pwerle represent their dreaming in strong iconographic and geometric ceremonial paintings which are like identical transfers of the ground markings used during the men’s ceremonies. These large ceremonial ground paintings made from earth-pigments are sacred and have provided the model for acrylic paintings on canvas. The artists have transferred their sacred dreaming designs from the ephemeral to the tangible. Continue reading about dreamtime, dreaming and its relationship to the art history of Utopia. (Photo: Sunshine Rock on MacDonald Downs, © Eastern Desert Art)