The creative process for me is both automatic and deeply emotional. Many of my works are inspired by my heritage and the legacy of my great-grandmother, Eliza Pengarte Gordon (Eastern Aranda) and grandmother, Emily Ann Angale Gordon (Eastern Aranda/Kukatja).
I become overwhelmed with emotion at the impacts of colonisation, racial discrimination and human rights injustices; painting helps to alleviate these historical wounds.
My art emerges through an intuitive, channelled process, guided by my ancestors, my great-grandmother, and the dreaming of country. When I paint, I do not plan the work; the stories, symbols, and landscapes flow through me, revealing themselves in dots, spirals, buds, and living ecosystems. Each painting becomes a vessel — a container for memory, life, and ancestral energy.
I am a descendant of Aranda and Kukatja (Luritja) peoples. My great-grandmother was taken from her country as a child during the Stolen Generations, and much of our language and cultural knowledge was forcibly removed. In dreams, I walk with her through the desert, speaking in language, learning stories, and receiving guidance. Through painting, I translate these ancestral transmissions into visual form, honouring lineage, land, and memory.
Honey ants, emu’s, birds and grubs appear frequently in my work. I depict their bodies as living worlds, carrying flowers, seeds, spirals, and ecosystems — symbols of life, renewal, and the sweetness beneath the surface of the land. The desert rose forms and purple hues connect to my grandmother and great-grandmother, as well as the stories, memories, and guidance both continue to share with me.
Art, for me, is soul food. Art-making is meditation and medication in action. It nourishes my craving for connection, belonging, beauty, clarity and harmony; creating is cathartic.
Like life, painting is constant movement and constant change. The creative process allows my emotions to spill out onto the canvas and release. My work is deeply entwined with healing. I consciously weave my own experiences, traumas, and the lessons of Lateral Love into my art, holding space for the histories of all the lineages I carry.
Through this practice, a custodian — of stories, of country, of crystals and stones, and of the energies and lessons they hold. Each painting is a conscious transmission, a bridge between past and present, between human and ancestral, guiding both my own life and that of my son.
I am in love with the physical act of painting — the preparation of my tools of trade, mixing colours and tempering consistency to perfection brings immense joy.
Creating works of art with specific people in mind, or seeing my art bring pleasure to other souls, is a wonderful feeling. I am always looking for ways to stretch my creativity and love experimenting with colour and texture. I enjoy fine line work and have an eccentric passion for circles and the interconnectedness of all things.
When practicing dot work, I use single, double and triple dots to create varying levels of intricate complexity in my works. Any circle I see in the house can be utilised in my creations.
Creative expression is one of the keys to practising mindfulness and balancing my spirit. Painting brings my ideas to life through imagination, observation, reflection, action and practice, transforming the mundane.
I feel that each creation challenges me and helps me to view the world from new perspectives. Materials I use include acrylic paints, watercolours, paintpens, natural ochres, metallics and pastels, single stretched canvas, professional series double-thick stretched canvas, rolled canvas, canvas board, wood plaques, synthetic canvas, wood, clay, up-cycled frames with glass, recycled picture frames, recycled vinyl records, vases, pots, plates and walls.
I use my bare hands along with everyday household items, including sticks, palette knives, chopsticks from Japan and from the local shop, purposely made dowels, paints from New Zealand, doilies lovingly crocheted by my great-grandmother Ivy Beatrice in the early 1900s, sea sponges, Lego, Plasticine, potatoes, scrapers, thousands of brushes, stones, bark, door stoppers, pins, needles, jam bottles, a magic toy wand, kitchen utensils and malleable welding wires to develop my creations.
Through my art, I aim to honour my ancestors, continue their stories, create my own and manifest a future in which my son — and all those who come after — can live free from generational trauma, grounded in culture, love, and sovereignty. My paintings are living transmissions: of country, of memory, of healing, and of the deep, enduring connection between all beings, past, present and future.
Nicola Kngwarraye Butler 