Michelle Anderson
BORN
1986
LANGUAGE
PITJANTJATJARA
BIRTH PLACE
KALGOORIE, WA
LIVES
TJUNTJUNTJARRA, WA
I went on those bush trips in the early days and walked around and watched all the old women painting. I watched my Nana (Kunmanara Myrtle Pennington) painting. She told me to watch her and learn. She told me stories and Tjukurpa from Kanpa (the Country where she was born). She was getting sick then and I helped her on her paintings. I paint the same as my Nana. I paint her Country, Kanpa. And I like to use about 3 or 4 colours, that’s all. I learnt from her and what she was painting. I like to go and paint at the Art Centre in the afternoon when its quiet. I like painting when its quiet. ”
— Michelle Anderson
Michelle Anderson has direct family line of great Spinifex painters. Her immediate Grandmothers are Myrtle Pennington and Myrtles younger sister Carlene West. As a young mother herself, Michelle watched from a safe distance as the acclaimed painting careers of both Myrtle and Carlene grew to great heights. She became the primary carer, as Myrtle aged gracefully, and would sit, watch and listen as her grandmother painted the significant sites of Mulplya and Kanpa. Myrtle loved having her granddaughter by her side and watching the subtle generational transference of Tjukurpa.
Michelle began to assist Myrtle during her tiring final few paintings before Myrtle became immobile by her own frailty. But this spurned Michelle into a creative pursuit to continue forward with what she’d garnered from her time with Myrtle. And in a short space of time, Michelle has succeeded in expanding her own creativity whilst keeping grounded in all she has learnt. The result is as sublime as it is individual, with the compositions expressing a new found creative palette from the roots of rich legacy.
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