Fair Trade Fine Art

Limited Edition Prints Have Arrived

2009-01-11T11:28:00.000-08:00

After much too-ing and fro-ing the first of the limited edition prints have arrived and will be available at the Fair Trade Cafe from this week onwards. We hadn't appreciated quite how long or how expensive it was to ship a few prints to Nicaragua and back. Ultimately, they arrived back in the USA, having been signed by artist Luis Varela, via a relative living in Miami! All's well that ends well and they did arrive safely on Friday.

These, we hope, will be the first of many sets of limited edition prints by a variety of artists from around the world. It is a great way for collectors to acquire some very fine works of art at a price far below that of the originals. The first in our series, as I said, is by a Nicaraguan artist, Luis Varela Aguirre and is entitled 'Cascada'. I have to say that Luis' work is among some of my favorite - the detail and the vibrancy of his works are truly remarkable. There is a great 'vibe' to his paintings.

Luis, originally from Grenada, has exhibited both in Europe, Israel and the USA, as well as Nicaragua. We hope soon to have our limited edition prints available online through this blog. The blog is currently being redesigned, so watch this space. The print run is limited to 500 copies; each 28" X 20" in size, are all signed and numbered by the artist, and cost $250 unframed.

Phoenix Light Rail Celebrations

2008-12-28T10:52:00.000-08:00

Even though the Roosevelt Station wasn't one of the official 'celebration' stops, the Fair Trade Cafe was 'a buzzin'. Everyone had a great time and the Phoenix Light Rail was greeted by overwhelming enthusiasm by Cafe patrons. The new light rail system should prove to be a boon for downtown businesses and having the gateway to the arts district station right opposite should make the Fair Trade Cafe a premier stop for commuters and visitors alike.

Yesterday also saw the conclusion of our Christmas Fair Trade Art Exhibition and this week sees a return to our regular program of exhibitions of the works of local artists, this month with the work of Vav - see cafe website for details. We shall. of course have a selection of Fair Trade art and crafts on display at the Cafe and are looking forward to the imminent arrival of our first five limited edition prints of Luis Varela's 'Cascada'. Watch this space!

Fair Trade Cafe Joins Phoenix Light Rail Celebrations

2008-12-23T10:48:00.000-08:00

On Saturday, 27th December, from 10am - 5pm, Phoenix celebrates the opening of its new light rail system - having put up with the disruptions over building the thing for the last couple of years! Station celebrations will occur along the entire 20-mile METRO alignment. There will be music, activities and exhibits at many park-n-ride and light rail station locations. Shuttle buses will be available to take you back to your car. Rides will run from 10am - 8pm and are totally free.

As the Fair Trade Cafe stands right outside the light rail station serving the downtown Arts District - Central/ 1st Ave and Roosevelt - we are taking part in the celebrations with pavement art and craft displays and, of course, plenty of Fair Trade coffee! I shall also be down there from approximately 10am - 2pm giving guided tours of our Fair Trade fine Art works. So, if you are heading downtown to check out the light rail - drop on by and see us at the Fair Trade Cafe!

Aboriginal Art from Australia

2008-12-22T15:03:00.000-08:00

We currently have three pieces of aboriginal art on display at the Fair Trade Cafe. The painting above is acrylic on canvas and is called "Women's Ceremony". The artist, Katie Kemarre, was born 1943 and is from Antarrengeny, in the Utopia Region, NE of Alice Springs. Katie is a well known artist in Australia and participated in the "Utopia - A Picture Story Exhibition", a silk batik by 88 Utopian artists, which toured internationally. She generally paints using acrylic on canvas, but also does the occasional wood carving.

She has been exhibiting since 1989, not only throughout Australia but also in the USA. Her exhibitions in the U.S include Portland Oregon (The Cove Gallery; Urban Wine Works; Mary's Woods; Portland Art Museum), Knoxville, Tennessee (Art & Soul Gallery; New City Merchants) and also the Mbantua Gallery USA Exhibition in Portland, Nashville, Knoxville, Greenwich and New York in 2004.

These are very unique and interesting paintings - every one of them has a story to tell. Come by the Fair Trade Cafe and check them out for yourself!

A Resource for Potential Fair Trade Retailers

2008-11-19T07:52:00.000-08:00

For those looking to get into the retail market, or want to find out more information on how Fair Trade works, then you might want to consider purchasing 'The Conscious Consumer'. The Fair Trade Resource Network has just launched the 4th Edition of its best selling booklet 'Conscious Consumer: Promoting Economic Justice Through Fair Trade. The booklet is available in either hard copy or PDF formats from the FTRN website, priced at $3.95 and $2.00 respectively.

The booklet includes information on the History of Fair Trade, Benefits to Consumers, Faith-based Outreach, Why Traditional Trade is Ripe for Change, Identifying and Motivating Consumers, and much more. Well worth a look I would say - and for all you Fair Trade retailers, you can even get a discount on bulk orders. How's that for a bargain!

Progress with Limited Edition Prints

2008-11-13T05:51:00.000-08:00

After several months of organising I finally picked up the first batch of limited edition prints yesterday. We are hoping to expand this range in the future and are currently working with three artists from Nicaragua. The first print is of a painting called "Cascada" by artist Luis Varela. His works are stunning in their colour and detail and have been exhibited as far away as Israel and Spain, as well as in the U.S. and have won numerous competitions. We shall be offering a limited edition of 500 prints, each signed and numbered by the artist, and selling unframed for $250.

Our newly designed blog will be up very soon, courtesy of Dave Kellett of Dude Blog Your Business, and we are planning to have these prints available online through the blog as well as through the Fair Trade Cafe. For those of you local to Phoenix, you can also get a 15% discount on framing through our friends at The Art of Framing, on Central and Camelback - just ask for a coupon when you purchase Karuna Village Fine Art at the Fair Trade Cafe.

Australian Aboriginal Art on Display at Exclusive Karuna Village Exhibition

2008-11-05T08:02:00.000-08:00

Our exclusive exhibition of Karuna Village Fair Trade art and crafts has now begun at the Fair Trade Cafe and will be running through until the end of the year. We have a wide variety of high quality art and crafts from around the world, including three aboriginal paintings from Australia.

This piece is called 'Bradshaw Rock Art' by artist Ju Ju Wilson. It is 12" x 10" in size and the medium is ochre on canvas. Each of our Australian paintings are accompanied by a certificate of authenticity.

Ju Ju Wilson, whose aboriginal name is Burriwee, is a member of a well known painting family whose paintings are collected worldwide. Not only does she paint but she is also an expert on 'bush tucker' (edible wild foods), and bush medicines, is a renown didgeridoo maker and boomerang carver, is a sought after cultural advisor and has made numerous television appearances on subjects about rock art and sacred sites in Australia, about which she is an authority. And all while looking after a family of six!

Every painting, every artist has a unique story to tell, and that is what is so special about owning a piece of fair trade art. So, if you are in the area, and are looking for something unique to buy your loved one for Christmas, come on down to the Fair Trade Cafe in Downtown Phoenix and see what other stories we have for you to see!

You can see many of the pieces on display at the exhibition on our Flickr page - www.flickr.com/photos/fair_trade_art/

Finger Puppets from Peru

2008-10-30T07:43:00.000-07:00

Karuna Village offers a range of great craft items alongside the fine art. I particularly love these - they are finger puppets and are made by a number of women artists from Peru. They come from a tiny mountain village called Chucuito, some 12,500 feet above sea level and near Lake Titicaca. Textile making has a long history here and knitting is a skill that is learned at a young age. It is a seasonal occupation that takes place after the planting and harvesting seasons are over. Traditionally the women take care of the farms animals, llamas and alpacas and help out with the barley and potato crops as needed so knitting is very much an occupation for the winter months before planting season comes round again.

The leader and designer for the group is called Tomasa. She leads her group of knitters who each will bring in approximately half the annual income for the family, and allows them to work from home so they can look after their children, and giving them a sense of independence.

There are all kinds of finger puppet characters to chose from - we even have some Halloween-themed characters which I am sure will find a new home very quickly. There is even a little puppet theatre to go with them - our cafe patrons will be able to put on their own shows!

Guatemalan Oil Paintings Have Arrived

2008-10-26T11:59:00.000-07:00

It wasn't only oil rubbings that arrived from Guatemala last week - we also received a couple of oil paintings from Santiago artist Martin Chavajay. We have a couple of these enigmatic paintings on sale at the Fair Trade Cafe, the above example entitled "Corn Harvest Scene" is oil on canvas, 11" X 9" in size, and is on sale unframed at $95. We currently have two of Martin's oil paintings on sale and hope to have some more paintings from a variety of Guatemalan artists in the near future.

In other news, our first Nicaraguan painting will be heading to the printers this week as the first in our range of limited edition prints. The aim is to have these on sale, online through the blog as well as in the Fair Trade Cafe, hopefully by the end of November.
We are also expecting our first three Australian Aboriginal pieces this week, plus some very cute Peruvian finger puppets - more of which next time!

New In - Mayan Oil rubbings from Guatemala

2008-10-17T12:19:00.000-07:00

This weekend will see several new pieces of art on display at the Fair Trade Cafe, including this unusual Mayan Oil Rubbing from Guatemala, one of several by artist Antigua. This particular rubbing is from the Temple of the Cross at the Mayan city of Palenque in Mexico. 'El Fumador', or 'The Smoker' is and aged deity of the West, known as "God L" who has been identified as an important Underworld and War god. He appears on the sanctuary jamb of the Temple of the Cross smoking tobacco and wearing a jaguar cloak and headress made from the feathers of the mythical Mayan Moan bird.

The rubbing is made by stretching cloth (100% cotton) over a mahogany reproduction of the original stone carving, and applying oil paint to the raised areas.
This particular piece is 22.5" X 15" in size These are very unusual and enigmatic pieces which I am sure will be popular with our customers! At the moment you can get a voucher for 15% off when you get your picture framed by our friends at The Art of Framing (located at Central & Camelback).

October Sidewalk Art Sale Update

2008-10-07T08:12:00.000-07:00

Just a quick update on the Sidewalk Art Sales for our October Fair Trade Month - due to outstanding commitments we shall not be holding an art sale on the 11th. Our next Sidewalk Art Sale will be on Saturday October 18th between 9am and midday. The Roosevelt Market is hosting the Harvest Festival celebrations just down the road from the cafe (there will be a Fair Trade Cafe stall serving coffee there as well). So once you have visited the market come on up and see our art and craft display. We will have new art from Guatemala, Peru and Vietnam for you to see and buy, so come by and see us then if you can.

Information on our final October Sidewalk Art Sale will be posted nearer the time, by which time we should have received even more new art! For details and a map check in with the Fair Trade Cafe website at http://azfairtrade.com

Karuna Village Moving Away From Online Sales

2008-10-01T14:21:00.000-07:00

Much planning has been going on at the Fair Trade Cafe over Karuna Village over the last couple of months. The online art sales have been disappointing and with Michele's move to the cafe full time we want to place much more emphasis on sales of fair trade fine art and crafts from the cafe itself. We shall still host monthly exhibitions of local artist's work but Karuna Village art will be given much more wall space than was previously given.

In the end, people like to see the art they are buying. It is very difficult to get a real appreciation of the quality of a piece of art from a picture alone. As a consequence we shall be discontinuing the online art sales and selling exclusively from the Fair Trade Cafe. In place of the online shop we are going to upgrade this blog with a brand new, professionally designed blog, courtesy of Dave Kellett of dudeblogyourbusiness.com. The blog will then become the online presence for Karuna Village. We are hoping this transition will be completed by the beginning of November.

That is not to say that there won't be any online art for sale. Blogs are clever things these days and we are looking at one particular widget that will allow individual items to be sold. One line we think might be suitable for such online sale is the Limited Edition Print range we are currently negotiating for. More on that soon.

Plans for October's Fair Trade Month

2008-09-17T13:14:00.000-07:00

As you may be aware by now, October is Fair Trade Month and Karuna Village and the Fair Trade Cafe are busy making plans to play our part in the proceedings. We are currently in the process of buying a variety of fair trade art pieces from around the world in readiness for our forthcoming pavement art sales, set to begin on Saturday October, 4th at the Fair Trade Cafe in downtown Phoenix (see http://azfairtrade.com for a map). The pavement art sales will be held every Saturday throughout the month and, if successful, we may well continue them on a regular basis. [Note: by "pavement art sale" I mean a sale of art on the pavement/sidewalk outside the cafe, not an exhibition of "pavement art" as in chalk drawings on the sidewalk! Just in case anyone gets confused with my British terminology!].

The art purchases will also go towards building up our stock in readiness for the exclusive Karuna Village exhibition which will run from First Friday in November (7th) through the Christmas period up to the last Sunday in December, when we shall return to the exhibitions of our local artists.
However, there will still be a substantial showing of Karuna Village art in the cafe for those looking to purchase something original and unique and which helps indigenous artists around the world. I will be highlighting some of the new art as it arrives, so watch this space!

3D Apillera Art From Peru

2008-08-27T05:32:00.000-07:00

Here is a modern folk art tradition from Peru - I love these - it is know as 3D Apillera Art (pronounced ar - pee - era) and takes the form of a quilted story telling collage. Certain elements of the picture, such as animals and houses, are stuffed with a technique known as 'trapunto'. Fine details are added using embroiderey.

I discovered this unusual art on the following website - www.lucuma.com. Lucuma Designs is a member of the Fair Trade Federation, a non-profit organization, committed to help artisans and producers around the world improve their standard of living. The following information on 3D Apillera Art comes from their website.

"The Lucuma Designs team has been nurturing a select group of 25 arpillera artists since 1998. Providing them with new ideas, we encourage them to expand their creativity. They have now raised the quality of work to new standards for a growing market of world collectors."

"The Arpillera folk art tradition began in the early 1970’s, when social upheaval in Peru pushed entire Andean communities to migrate to the city. People abandoned their land, home, crops, and animals for settlements in the outskirts of Lima. In search of safety and economic stability, they found something far from that, and families were forced to start from scratch. Thanks to their skilled hands, a sense of tradition and creativity, many women from these new communities learned a new skill with the help of German missionaries. Working from home, they could now use this marketable craft to generate income for their families while tending their children. Today, the tradition is more alive than ever. The second-generation have elevated this arpillera tradition into an art form."

We have been talking to Lucuma Designs about stocking a few pieces for Karuna Village. But, if you are taken with these unusual works of art and would like to see the full Lucuma Designs collection, please visit their website at wwww.lucuma.com where you can order online.

Nicaraguan Artist Lius Varela

2008-08-13T17:21:00.000-07:00

Some progress this week from Nicaragua with an email from Carmen Garcia to say that she has found a printer locally who can produce the Giclee prints. This is good news as we at Karuna Village always prefer to support the local economy of the artists from whom we purchase our art.

A further piece of good news came in the form of an email from artist Luis Varela from Nicaragua who is also interested in offering some of his superb paintings as limited edition prints. The painting above is called "Beautiful View" and is one my particular favorites. The quality of art from Nicaragua is exceptional and I am sure there will be great demand for these prints when they are released. Don't worry - we'll be sure to let you know as soon as they are ready!

Negotiating a Deal with Nicaraguan Artists

2008-08-06T16:39:00.000-07:00

With greatful thanks to Dolly at the Nicaraguan Cultural Alliance (NCA), we have been contacted by 3 artists from Nicaragua interested in exhibiting their art on the Karuna Village website. I had seen some truly outstanding paintings on the NCA website and approached Dolly with the idea of seeking to do a limited edition print series of selected artists works.

Subsequently I have received an email from Carmen Garcia, a Nicaraguan artist of 25 years standing who works in the primitivism style, (an example of her work is shown above), who, along with two of her colleagues, Santos Medina and Luis Verela, are very interested in the idea. The sizes they are working on are 120cm x 80 and 60 x 50 cm, and mainly oil or acrylic on canvas.

Currently, Carmen is looking for a printer locally who can undertake Giclee printing. The idea is to create a limited edition print run of selected paintings, with between 100 - 250 prints, each signed and numbered by the artist, and selling for around $250 per print. These are stunning works of art and certainly deserve a wider audience. I think there will be a lot of interest once these prints become available. Watch this space, as they say!

More Karuna Village Fair Trade Merchandise at the Fair Trade Cafe

2008-07-24T16:55:00.000-07:00

Karuna Village is extending its range of fair trade products for sale at the Fair Trade Cafe in Phoenix. The retail side of the Karuna Village operation is an important part of its efforts and we are planning to put more emphasis on the Fair Trade Cafe as a retail outlet for a variety of fair trade products, including the fine art, from August onwards.

Karuna Village is a non-profit organization committed to providing fair wages and good employment opportunities to economically disadvantaged artisans and farmers. We purchase items ranging from home décor to jewelry and clothing to soap from cooperatives and other non-profit organizations throughout the world, including the United States. Some of the initiatives we support with these purchases include building schools and hospitals, training and income for disadvantaged populations and reforestation. Every time you buy a piece Karuna Village Fair Trade merchandise you are contributing to one of these projects.

We have new items available every month and they are available for purchase only at the Fair Trade Café in Downtown Phoenix. Use your purchases to make a positive impact in the world.

Fair Trade Resource Network

2008-07-12T07:49:00.000-07:00

If you want to find out more about the world of fair trade and what it can do for people across the planet, you might want to check out the Fair Trade Resource Network. They describe themselves as an "information hub designed to grow the fair trade movement". Obviously, we at Karuna Village applaud their efforts and wish to support their work in any way we can - even if it just by giving them a plug here!

The Fair Trade Network was founded in 1999 and is a nonprofit organisation. Its primary purpose is education of the buying public - "helping people to better understand the impact of their buying decisions". If you are a fair trade outlet, or thinking of providing fair trade goods, they have a wide variety of resources that can help you in getting your fair trade message across to your audience.

One of the key elements of Karuna Village was that we didn't just want to sell high quality art on a fair trade basis, we wanted to tell the story behind the art. Think of the value you get as an art buyer over buying some derivative department store 'decor', when you get a personal story, belief, culture, and often a mythology, as well as a unique piece of fine art. Plus, you are helping to support an economy where often there are few alternatives to earn a living for the people involved. That's what I love about the internet - it gives a global market to the remotest peoples. How great is that!

Embroidery Painting

2008-07-06T14:59:00.000-07:00

This is another speciality of Vietnam - embroidery painting. Embroidery art has been around for over 700 years and the northern provinces of Ninh Binh and Ha Tay are particularly renown for their embroidery skills. These artists literally paint with different coloured embroidery threads. This particular piece is my favorite - it reminds me of the lush green woodlands of the Forest of Dean in England where I lived before coming to Arizona. This is a large piece at 15" x 23" and would have taken the artist over a month to complete! Of course, a quality piece like this one is not cheap - this piece will set you back some $700, but there are great variety of subjects, sizes and prices. Check out our selection on the Karuna Village website!

Fish Painting Brings Good Fortune

2008-07-04T10:14:00.000-07:00

Every wanted a fish tank but didn't have the space? Well how about one of these on your wall? It is another example of Vietnamese Lacquer art. In my last post I showed one of the more modern styles of Vietnamese Lacquer art. This example is more traditional and might well be found in any Vietnamese or Chinese home or restaurant.

It is a stunning piece of work, the fish being made of mother of pearl inlaid on beautiful vermilion lacquer. This is a new piece and was added to the Karuna Village gallery - www.karunavillage.com - only a few days ago. It is said in Vietnam, that if you have a fish painting hanging on the wall of your house, it can bring good fortune onto the household. Personally, I always feel fortunate when I have great art adorning my walls. What a great piece this would make for a bathroom!

Modern Style Vietnamese Lacquer Art

2008-06-25T17:41:00.000-07:00

We are offering a range of very affordable lacquer paintings from Vietnam. What makes these particularly interesting is that they are a modern take on a very traditional, 2000 year old, Vietnamese technique - lacquer painting.
Lacquers are made from resins harvested from the Rhus Succedanea Tree from the Phu Tho Province of northern Vietnam.

A full description of the process can be found on the Karuna Village website, but it is a long and complex process that can take between 75 days to over 100 days for some pieces, and involves the application of of materials like mother of pearl, egg shell and gold leaf.

These modern versions use many of the same techniques and are all themed around the universal beauty of women and nature. They seem to be a particularly popular item at the moment - check them all out on the Karuna Village website by clicking on this link - click here.

Visit the Fair Trade Cafe

2008-06-17T17:19:00.000-07:00

For those of you who happen to live in Phoenix or, indeed, are planning to visit the city, you can see a small selection of the fair trade fine art sold by Karuna Village at the Fair Trade Cafe, located at the junction of Roosevelt and 1st Ave. We are currently showing a selection of art from Vietnam.

Cafe owner, Michele White, who also founded Karuna Village, has done a wonderful job in creating a superb venue for local arts including both monthly wall art displays of local artists' work as well as poetry and music performances - see the Fair Trade Cafe website (azfairtrade.com) for details. Not only that but you also get a great cup of fair trade coffee and great food while you are there as well!

The cafe is also a participating venue of the monthly Phoenix Art Walk and Michele is very much part of the initiative to improve the Copper Square area of the city where the cafe is located.

Fair Trade for Huichol Art

2008-06-13T08:53:00.000-07:00

Shortly after my last post I came across this video on YouTube. It is a great example of the kind of organisation that Karuna Village wants to work with to help them fulfill their aim to help indigenous groups like the Huichol get a fair price for their art. The Konshak Foundation was formed to help the Huichol Indians to market their art at a fair market price, and to "create new fusion of contemporary art".

The video very succinctly highlights the plight of the Huichol and how such organisations as the Konshak Foundation can be of help without being overtly intrusive. This is a great example of what amazing good the internet is capable of facilitating - a subject I would like to delve into further some time.
Enjoy!

Origin of the Idea

2008-06-10T16:47:00.000-07:00

Photo by Dave Kellet

The germ of the idea for setting up a fair trade fine art business began back in November 2005 when Naomi and I were on a short cruise holiday along the Mexican Riviera. One of our ports of call was Puerto Vallarta where the ship docked for the day and we went into town to explore. Puerto Vallarta has a very good market, and that is where we headed for. We discovered a little shop at the edge of the market which sold Huichol art, which consisted of brightly coloured 'yarn paintings' and beadwork. I'll go into more detail about the art produced by the Mexican Huichol Indians in a later post, but suffice it to say we were immediately drawn to this artwork.

Earlier on in our trip we had attended a timeshare presentation, for which 'torture' we were compensated with a gift of $100 cash. Well, it happened that the particular piece of Huichol art we were drawn to cost exactly $100, so we figured what better use could we put that money to than to purchase this wonderful piece? (As illustrated in the picture).

We chatted with the propietor, Ricardo, and it turned out that the shop was part of a nonprofit organisation set up to promote the art of the Huichol Indians so that they had both a source of income in what were very poor mountain villages and, at the same time keeping alive their unique folk art traditions. The thing that interested me at the time was when he showed us photographs of of the villages and some of the artists at work. The Huichol Indians live in round huts. I was, at that time, involved in a project building replica round houses of the British Iron Age and so this was, to me, an amazing coincidence. Ricardo said that if we were ever in Puerto Vallarta again he would arrange a visit to the Huichol villages and introduce us to the artists. We vowed then and there that we would, at some point in the future, take him up on his kind and generous offer.

Our thoughts then were that this was great art and that there would be a great market for this quality of work back in the US and Britain. That thought remained in the back of our minds and thus was born the germ of the idea to set up a fair trade fine art business.

New Australian Aboriginal Painting

2008-06-01T10:13:00.000-07:00

A great new piece of art came up for sale today. This is a great example of why I wanted to set up Karuna Village - Aboriginal artists from Australia produce some of the best indigenous art in the world, and this is a perfect example - a painting very much tied in with the aboriginal beliefs and landscape.

The piece is by artist Paddy Japaljarri Stewart.

The title of the piece is Ngarlu Jukurrpa (Love Story Dreaming)

It is Acrylic on Linen, executed 2005, and is 122cm x 91cm in size.

The Dreaming site of Miinypa or Yanyilingi is Ngarlu, meaning "red rock", country east of Yuendumu.

Jungarrayi man called Lintipilinti who lived at Ngarlu fell in love with a Napangardi woman, a tabu relation as the women was his skin mother in-law. This relation is forbidden to him under the Warlpiri skin system. Lintipilinti fell in love with the Napangardi women when he saw her. Lintipilinti was very impressed and aroused by her beauty and began to wonder how he could win the Napangardi. He went to Ngarlu and made hair string for her, singing as he worked.

Paddy has depicted the hair string spindel 'wirigy' by the 4 black shapes in the corners of this painting. The Napangardi women could not sleep and felt strange in her stomach, she felt sick. She realised that someone was singing for her. A little bird visited her every day taking Jungarrayi’s songs to her.

That bird can still be heard sometimes in the bush - It helps people find certain bush foods. It also talks to people when they are lonely, sad or in danger. Lines on the canvas represent the force of the song pulling the Napangardi women to Lintipilinti. When the two lovers met again and made love they turned to stone, as their relationship was tabu in Warlpiri skin system. The place where they turn to stone can still be seen at Ngarlu today.

The story behind the art is as important to us as the piece itself. If you re interested in this or similar kinds of art then visit our online gallery at www.karunavillage.com