Untitled 1990

Maria Josette Orsto was born in 1962 and became the first female artist of Tiwi Design in Nguiu on Bathurst Island in the mid-1980s. Subsequently, she became the first female member artist of Munupi Arts and Crafts.

This painting is the artist's interpretation of the traditional Tiwi jilamara (good designs/body paint designs), which are used to decorate participants and objects during ceremony. This work has been painted in Orsto's distinctively bold and colourful style. Here, she overlays fluorescent green, blue and purple crosshatching onto pink, red and black backgrounds, creating her own unique representation of jilamara.