New!
Original Artwork - MB061020
$320.00
1998
Language Group:Alyawarre
Country:Numfive and Irrweltye, Utopia Region, North East of Alice Springs, Northern Territory
Medium:Acrylic on Canvas
Subjects:Anaty (Desert Yam)
Shikera (previously spelt Shakira) began painting in September 2006. Her first paintings for Mbantua Gallery were canvas and paint she had borrowed from her mother, Lisa Mills Pwerle (deceased).
One of our youngest artists, Shikera's face proudly sports a huge smile when she finishes a new painting. We hope she has a great future and continues to learn the traditions of her culture through painting.
Shikera paints the same subject as her mother, the Anaty (desert yam). There is an ancient Dreamtime story belonging to the Anaty which Shikera will continue to be taught as she gets older. This story belongs to her mother's country, Irrweltye. Her designs are very similar to her mother's, who was her teacher, where linear work represents the root system of the yam and dots are its seeds.
Artist: Shikera Petrick Mills Petyarre
Size: 30 x 30cm
Title: Anaty (Desert Yam)
Medium: Acrylic on Canvas
Year Painted: 2022
Anaty (Desert Yam)
Shikera paints the Anaty (Desert Yam or Bush Potato, Ipomoea costata) story from her mother's country, Irrweltye, North East of Alice Springs.
This yam grows underground with its viny shrub growing above ground up to 1 metre high. It is normally found on spinifex sand plains and produces large pink flowers after summer rain. The anaty is a tuber, or swollen root, of the shrub and tastes much like the common sweet potato. It can be eaten raw or cooked and is still a staple food for the desert aborigines where it can be harvested at any time of the year. Some can be found as big as a person's head, making this a very important food source in the harsh Australian desert.
In this painting, Shikera depicts the seed of the anaty (dot work), and the root system of the yam (brush work and beautiful colours).
