#323 Honey Ant Dreaming - JONATHAN HOCKLEY - Aboriginal Art: 30x40cm
ARTIST: Jonathan Japanangka Hockley
REGION: Mt Leibig / Central Desert
LANGUAGE: Walpiri
TITLE: Honey Ant Dreaming
MEDIUM: Painting - acrylic on canvas
Story: The men and women look for bush-tucker. They use fire to burn-off and bring the honey ants and witchetty grubs out so they can collect them to eat. They walk to the creek to collect bush cherries and look for goanna and, snake nests to collect their eggs to cook on the fire. If they catch a snake or goanna they throw it on the fire until the skin is black, then it is ready to eat.
The colours dotted in the background represent different parts of the bush-fire, white being for grass, yellow for ash, pink embers, red flame, black charcoal, green for the first growth of new grasses after the fire, grey smoke and the dark yellow colour is the dung of the wtichetty grub. The circle areas with the star-like design is the Spinifex grass.
Biography:-
Jonathan Japanangka Hockley is a Walpiri man living in Darwin with his daughter and mother, the renowned artist, Sonda Nampimjmpa Turner.
Jonathan was taught and influenced by his mother and his uncles, highly respected Papunya Tula artists, Paddy Carroll Tjungurrayi, and Two Bob Tjungurrayi.
Jonathan paints the traditional way with a stick. Dipping the end in the paint and meticulously placing each. His paintings take him days to complete, he says he feels more connected to his culture so prefers the traditional ways.
