In 2009-10 I was so fortunate to spend some time with Gundungurra elders Aunty Mary King and Uncle Merv Cooper (both now passed). For me theirs is the great story of the Blue Mountains, hearing their old stories and yarns of the Gully in Katoomba, and the even older ones from the surrounding valleys. If I was to see faces in our incredible escarpments up here it would be these.
I guess these are also about what is glorious in an elder person, how the fruition of an entire life and the explanation/teaching of it can be written in the face and the body, without even saying anything. I will be showing these for the first time as part of Kedumba Connections, a satellite show of Kedumba trustees works held in conjunction with the 2018 Kedumba Drawing Award, opens 20 October to 2 December, Orange Regional Gallery. Big thank yous to Uncle David King, Aunty Merle Williams and Aunty Sharyn Halls.
Aunty Mary King (study, 2010) - 127x91cm, Conte on brown paper
Uncle Merv Cooper (study, 2009) - 107x81cm, Conte on brown paper