bernadine johnson
Bernadine Kemarre is a rising star in contemporary Aboriginal art. She was born in 1974 in the Ltyentye Apurte Community (Santa Teresa), approximately 80km east of Alice Springs, Northern Territory, and had a traditional upbringing before attending school in Alice Springs.Bernadine comes from a family of famous artists, including Abie Loy and Josie Petrick Kemarre, who emerged from the Utopia area in the NT. Her sister-in-law is Anna Price Petyarre, one of Central Desert's most sought-after artists. From a young age, she learned to paint her dreams, ceremonies, and important bush foods onto canvas.Bernadine lives with her husband, Steven, and their children in Napperby Station, NT. Her artwork is intricate and colourful, and she is an artist sure to succeed.
Bernadine's artwork depicts motifs that give symbolic form to tribal women engaged in cultural activities in a desert environment known as Yuelamu, which the women inherited from their Ancestral Grandmother, who travelled to this Anmatyerre site in the Tanami Desert during the Dreamtime at Creation.Represented as symbolic U-shapes, the women are shown in different areas collecting wild-growing bush food, which is given form through star-like shapes representing berry bushes. At the same time, clusters of pool-encased small dots and large dots represent various types of berries and bush plums that the women collect.
