Michael Naborhlborhl

Our people started painting with single hatching. Afterwards they started painting cross hatching. It makes it look really good but it’s still x-ray style. X-ray style is important, it shows the anatomy; heart, liver, lungs. It’s about what’s inside the animal’s body. I put the background and then build up layers of lines for decoration and overlapping on top of each other, combining like Rock Art. Sometimes I paint on both layers and it comes through. I get ideas from my imagination and from the rock art to make my designs. I want people to feel the spirits and the elders who were doing those styles when they look at my paintings. I want them to feel and touch how it was done, to see the past continuing in the present.