SHANE SMITHERS - MORNING LIGHT, WOMEN'S DREAMING TREE

 SHANE SMITHERS
MORNING LIGHT, WOMENĀ€™S DREAMING TREE,  2017
198 x 101 cm
Synthetic Polymer Paint on Canvas
 
PROVENANCE
Blue Mountains, NSW
Direct from the artist, Katoomba NSWCooee Art, Sydney, NSW 
 
STORY
The dreaming tree has incredible allegorical significance in Aboriginal lore. Its roots extend well into and are nourished by the earth (our mother, Wiari). The roots rise up to become the trunk, the trunk extends up, its bows, branches and leaves reaching into the sky (our father, Biari). The dreaming tree is about connection between mother and father, it salutes the creative forces that give birth to all life and celebrate regeneration.   The morning light reaches out to illuminate the great maternally nurturing canopy of leaves and serpentine roots of this great tree. The tree in this painting is significant to women and womenā€™s lore. I was given permission to paint it, but do not have permission to talk about some of the mysteries that it holds. What I can say is that the fig tree is a Womanā€™s tree. The leaves, painted like little diamonds with round edges, represents a womenā€™s story, but not just any story. They represent stories that the women share with their children, their families. So this dreaming tree tells many stories, great and small and represents the stuff of daily life, of survival and of Aboriginal culture.
 
EXHIBITED
Big Dreams, September 2017, Coo-ee Art Gallery Bondi