Josie Petrick Kemarre's roots are in the Utopia area of Central Australia. Her   innovation of non-iconographic fields of dotted color to depict her dreamings,   principally related to food gathering, have made her an artist of international   stature. Her paintings employ the application of multitudinous small dots that, when viewed from a distance, appear to be in movement and constantly changing and   adjusting to the viewer's perspective and to alterations in light.

Every Eastern Arrernte woman inherits custodial responsibility for certain bush food species that pertain to the country of their father. While the father carries out the men's ceremonies each summer with his brothers and sons, and his brother's sons, the daughters "do awelye" (general women's business) or the ceremonial procedures of body-painting, song and dance, as a ritual that links into the ceremonial purpose of the clan group.

 Josie Petrick's perception of her desert world relates directly to the food her country offers and to her role as a food gatherer. Her visual form here is an aerial view of her country surrounding Atularaunga, N.E. of Alice Springs. We see the bush Tucker and its spread over the country, the different colors indicating its various stages of ripeness.

 Awelye "grows up" the bush tucker. The women believe that Awelye endows the country with a spiritual strength from which fertility and hardiness are sourced for the purpose of future bush food growth. This spiritual strength is also applied to the woman herself, who learns the social code that she must abide by in order to nurture herself and her offspring into maturity.

Most of the people in the N.E. district of Alice Springs still believe that it is vital for the growth cycle of the plants that the relevant ceremonies/body paintings/songs and dance cycles be carried out frequently or annually. Women are the principal gatherers of bush tucker and most of their Dreamings relate to bush tucker.

Tribe: Arrente

Area: Central & Western Desert

Born: C. 1945

Born at Santa Teresa Mission, Josie Petrick began painting around 1990. Since then she has attained a high degree of sophistication in the interpretation of traditional women's stories. She usually depicts the gathering of bush food. In her art she uses only a semblance of Aboriginal iconography. This interesting, modern interpretation of landscape exudes and aura of the abundance of bush fruits."--Aboriginal Artists Dictionary of Biographies, Janusz B. Kreczmanski and Mago Birnberg. JB Publishing, Marleston, South Australia.

Josie Petrick Kemarre is a full blooded Aboriginal from the Arrente/Anmetjerrra Tribe. Josie comes from Utopia, an Aboriginal owned cattle station, located North East of Alice Springs. Josie has emerged as a bold and innovative artist, painting her Dreamings and the Landscape of "Her Country". Josie has taken the dot style of painting to new heights with her aerial depictions of her desert birthplace and surrounding traditional country. Josie has been painting since she was a teenager, but has emerged since the late 1980’s as a leading Utopian artist. Some of her stories are inherited from her late grandmother, Emily Kame Kngwarreye, who was a very successful artist late in life, and painted depictions of the desert and its plant life changing with the seasons and life-giving rains.

Josie has artworks Holmes a’ Court Collection and many private and public collections.

Her main Dreamings are based on native plants and bush tucker species in their various stages of growth, as well as design elements associated with Women’s Awelye (ceremony/dancing) and Women’s Dreamings. Josie paints in two distinctive styles, aerial bush tucker Dreamings with overlapping dot work and Women’s Dreaming with each row of dots painted in a different color and the inclusion of iconic women symbols.

Josie’s works are sought after for their unique layering of dots, which creates the illusion of a three dimensional image. Her command of color and space is highly evident.

Exhibitions

1996 - Aboriginal Desert Art Gallery, Melbourne

1997 - Aboriginal Art Galleries of Australia, Melbourne 1999 - Aboriginal Art Galleries of Australia

1999 - Embassy of Australia, Washington D.C.

1999 - Australian Consulate, New York City

1999 - United Nations, New York City

2000 - Aboriginal Art Galleries of Australia, Melbourne

2001 - Embassy of Australian, Washington D.C., USA

2003 - Chapel off Chapel Gallery, Melbourne

Collections

National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

Artbank, Sydney

Holmes aCourt Collection, Perth, WA

Charles Sturt University Collection