“Maruwara bana”
(early morning country)

A colour collection curated by Nicole Monks

Nicole Monks is an award winning trans-disciplinary artist of Yamatji Wajarri, Dutch and English heritage who lives and practices in Redfern.

Nicole says she was drawn to working with Murobond because of their open mindedness, their interest in working with artists, their energy plus the colour range and high environmental standards of Murobond’s paint range.

Director of Murobond, Peter Tasker, strongly believes that collaboration between creative people makes the world a better place and Murobond a better business. Nicole agrees and says collaboration is always central to her practice, “…collaboration enables artists to go bigger in scale, to push to areas you might not otherwise have gone.”

In their latest collaboration, Nicole has designed a specially chosen Murobond palette that responds to her country – the people, the colour and energy of the land.

“I look to the birla (sky) for hues of blue,
to burlga (grasses) for yellows,
to gayarra (foliage) for greens,
to jurduwarra (female animals) for browns,
to (yawari) ochre for whites
and ngarlbu (emu feathers) for off whites,
to thardu (wildflowers) for reds and purples,
to yabu (rocks) for metallics and barlu (stones) for glaze”

Nicole works with cultural integrity across all her projects. She says ” I am always considering what my ancestors would feel about my work and ask them ‘how are we feeling,’ rather than responding to what I ‘think’ I should do.”

Nicole says her projects are always driven by a responsibility to tell the stories of Aboriginal Australia and promote cross-cultural understanding and communication and she works in whatever media is required to best support this message.

“The word ‘art’ does not exist in aboriginal language,” Nicole explains, “because art is simply a part of everything – not divided into separate areas like art or design. Art is just who you are.“ Nicole’s body of work stands proof of this as her projects comfortably and successfully move between disciplines including interior design and conceptual art.

Then head to Nicole’s website to see more of her stunning work including earlier collaborations with Murobond such as the Marri Ngurang and Mana Ngurang projects.

(Photography Samantha Mackie)