My Country 2005

Makinti Napanangka painted this with acrylic on canvas, and the colours and compositions make me imagine the act of painting itself—how the artwork shifts and emerges through trial, error, and intuition. I really sympathize with Makinti as she made this work! What might she have been thinking? I see a lot of stripes and a lot of different colours that evoke such a beautiful landscape. It is almost like I'm looking at my own painting. The way the stripes are broken up and coloured in at certain points, and left bare at others communicates a feeling, intention, or meaning. All painters are in this ongoing conversation and exchange of ideas across time, inspiring one another’s creativity. We embrace ambiguity and uncertainty, allowing for multiple interpretations and meaning over fixed or definitive readings.