I am still in Tasmania. It is winter here and it is cold and we have frost every night.I had hope to go to Darwin (near the northern tip of mainland Australia) this Wednesday and from there go to Kakadu National Park but the ashes of the Chilean volcano have made it all the way to Tasmania and flights in and out of Tasmania as well as some other Australian towns have been cancelled.
A week ago I went to the local library with the friends I am staying with and borrowed on their card "Desert Country" by Nicci Cumpston with Barry Patton published by the Art Gallery of South Australia. It is a fabulous book about Aboriginal art with fabulous reproductions and even some explanations for some of the paintings. This is part of the reason why I want to go to Darwin, to go to Kakadu and see some Aboriginal rock paintings. At the same time I am re-reading "Song lines" by Bruce Chatwin which I found at a charity store. The two books together help see the Aboriginal art /culture differently and I am loving it.
Aboriginal paintings when viewed as abstracts are beautiful but are even better when a little sense is made out of them. (I wouldn't pretend that I can make much more than a small part of what they really represent)
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