Hamish Garrgarrku (Karrkarrhba)
Hamish Garrgarrku (Karrkarrhba) paints barks & hollow logs, feeling the spirit of the tree that decides the design to be painted on it
When Maningrida artist Hamish Garrgarrku (Karrkarrhba) approaches his artwork, he often starts by walking through his country looking at the trees and fallen logs. What he is looking for is the spirit of the wood, how it talks to him and how it presents its story. By sensing the presence in the timber, Hamish Garrgarrku (Karrkarrhba) thinks about how the painting will be expressed. He feels the attraction of a particular tree and its destiny, that it is to be part of making a particular design into an artwork.
This integration of nature and the land and the design stories of his ancestors all merge into the final artwork. Hamish Garrgarrku (Karrkarrhba) is a senior man in his clan group and is emerging as an artist expressing his own country’s totemic Creation stories.