Iris Taylor
Iris was born at Areyonga, about 250km west of Alice Springs. Areyonga is nestled in a valley flanked by 300 metre high ranges, with ghost gums dotted throughout the creek beds. The people of Areyonga are of the Pitjantjatjara tribal group with a few Arrernte and Walpiri who have joined the Community through marriage. Iris’s language is Pitjantjatjara. She has two sisters who are also painters. Iris went to school in Areyonga and then when she got older she attended Yirrara College in Alice Springs. It was here that she learnt more about art through charcoal sketching and also landscape painting. After she left school, she returned to Areyonga. Iris married and had two children, a son and a daughter; she also has an adopted son. She began to paint on silk at the women's centre in Areyonga.
Iris now lives in Alice Springs where she comes into Ngurratjuta Art Centre and does her painting. She likes to paint works that depict bush tucker and traditional gathering methods. Recently she has begun to paint landscapes in a naïve style. These works draw on her memories of childhood and her frequent bush trips also inform these landscapes.
The below artwork was featured in the Indigenous Law Bulletin January / February 2010 Volume 7 Issue 16.
