Jedda Purvis Kngwarreye was born at Boundary Bore; an area in Utopia, a community located 240 kilometres north east of Alice Springs known for its quality art. She is the daughter of accomplished Utopian artist Greeny Purvis Petyarre (who sadly passed away in May 2010) and Kathleen Kemarre.
Jedda’s artistic career began in the late 1980’s when as a young woman she participated in the famous “Utopia: A Picture Story”, which was a community project where silk batiks were introduced to the women of Utopia. The project was such a success that the full collection of 88 silk batiks was acquired by the Robert Holmes a Court Collection which they toured the exhibition through Eire and Scotland.
In many of her paintings, Jedda depicts the Dreaming “Kame”, which was handed down to her from her father’s side of the family. It is one of Utopia’s most famous Dreamtime stories, which was shared with Emily Kame Kngwarreye, the most well known and collectable Aboriginal artist of all time. “Kame” or Yam is an important plant which grows in the Utopia region - it is an important food source as well as a traditional healing plant. Women celebrate the pencil yam through ceremonies to ensure perpetual germination for future seasons. In the Dreamtime, there are two parts to the Pencil Yam Dreaming, two different kame (pencil yam seeds) were borne that created two different species of pencil yam. One is called Atnwelarr and the other called Arlatyeye. Atnwelarr belongs to Jedda's country, Alhalkere, and it is one of the most important stories for her people.
Jedda uses dots to depict the kame while linear patterns in the background represent the yam system beneath the ground and designs painted over the top with a small applicator bottle represent the yam flower.
Jedda is an emerging artist from Utopia with a strong following.
