How do you like your tea?
Kristy: Milk, 1 sugar, 2 teabags.
Graham: Same.
Can you tell me a bit about your early history? Where are you from?
Kristy: I am from Bidyadanga [a community located on the Kimberley coast in Western Australia]. I like going fishing, hunting with my family, camping out. I like doing my own things in the house. I love my job and painting. Sometimes I like to take a walk to the cemetery in the afternoon, clean up, talk with the family.
Graham: I am from Meekatharra [located in the mid west region of Western Australia]. I like going hunting and camping out in the bush, too. And being at Martumili. My mother made baskets, and made baskets at Martumili [gesturing to the land next to the art centre]. I used to go hunting with my mother, in the bush out here. I would drive along the back tracks, and we would stop at the Capricorn Roadhouse.
Where did you start painting?
Kristy: Last year, Graham’s niece, Sarafina [Dickie], said if you guys aren’t doing anything, you can come to Martumili. So, we came here and took some paint back home. And then we started coming into the studio.
What does a typical day look like in the studio?
Kristy: Slow. [We] concentrate on what we are going to do, what we are painting. We like to see other people, too. Help the volunteers with cooking, tidy up the paint, tidy up the shower, fold up all the towels. Getting involved.
I will soon start work at Martumili in the garden. I would like to plant some things. Cook kangaroo tail in cooking area.
We are trying to encourage more people to come [to Martumili] and start painting.
What do you like to paint?
Kristy: I paint about where I come from. I do lots of flowers, and a lot of waterholes. I paint what I have in my mind. [For] my new painting, I’m painting a sunset with a boab tree.
Graham: Bush turkey, kangaroo and emu. Bush tucker. Maybe in the future I will paint a wild cat. [I paint the] land and waterholes.
I started small, box paintings. And been painting bigger and bigger paintings. One day I will try and paint a really big one.
I like to mix my own colours.
What are you working on at the moment?
Kristy: [For] my new painting, I’m painting a sunset with a boab tree.
Graham: Waterholes with snake eggs. I will also paint snakes here [gesturing across the canvas].
What are your future goals?
Kristy: Our goal is that we are going to be top artists! We want to get more and more into it. I would like to go on a trip and see where our paintings are going – maybe in a museum. One day we might!
What we like about painting – our grand parents place, our grandfathers.
