Patsy paints
various aspects of women’s business, like collecting bush seeds and other
tucker, gathering and preparing bush
medicine, and designs associated with Yawulyu - women's ceremony. In this painting, Patsy depicts a Rain Dreaming design,
associated with a significant Warlpiri Jukurpa (Dreaming) creation story about
the rains that move across the land, and the wetter seasons that bring new life
to the desert country. In the Jukurrpa, the Dreaming, two Jangala men “sang
down the rain” in an attempt to end a long, harsh drought that had been plaguing
their country, but accidentally unleashed an enormous storm. A kirrkarlanji
(brown falcon) carried the storm further west until it became too heavy, and it
dropped the water at Pirlinyarnu, west of Yuendumu, where it formed an enormous maluri (claypan)
and mulju (soakage) that exists to this day. This is the part of the story that
Patsy depicts – the flowing brushwork lines represent ngwarra, floodwaters or
flowing creek beds, and the smaller dots are attributed to the mulju, soakages.
Whenever it rains, hundreds of ngapangarlpa (bush ducks) still flock to
Pirlinyarnu. This design honours the rains that move across the land and seep into the dry earth, and the wetter seasons that bring new life to the desert country. Using a combination of brushwork and a meticulous dotting technique, Patsy creates a design both traditional and contemporary, emulating moving clouds swollen with precious rain, rolling across the desert country.