Talk:Julie Dowling (artist)/reverted edits

Julie Dowling (born 1969) is a First Nation Australian Artist.

Born in the Perth suburb of Subiaco at the King Edward Memorial Hospital, Julie Dowling grew up in a number of outer Perth suburbs including Armadale, Karawarra and North Perth. The most influential place on Julie's upbringing occurred during her intermitted stays with her maternal grandmother in Redcliffe when it was mostly bushland, in a large extended family of Badimaya First Nation Australians, whose traditional lands were around Warriedar Station located south of Mount Magnet and west of Lake Moore in the Mid-West of Western Australia.'Julie Dowling'National Gallery of Victoria'About' Julie Dowling's website [http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/deepend/julie-dowling---warrid

Dowling received a Diploma of Fine Art from the Claremont School of Art in 1989, a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Curtin University in 1992 and an Associate Diploma in Visual Arts Management at Central Metropolitan College of TAFE in 1995. She was the first woman in her family to gain a university degree.

Dowling works in a social realist style and deals with issues of First Nation identity, informed by the experiences of her community, culture and family - inspired by such traditions as European portraiture and Christian iconography, Badimaya sand, cave and body painting and Badimaya iconography.'Julie Dowling' National Gallery of Victoria

Julie Dowling was a finalist for the Archibald Prize in 2001, 2002 and 2013, along with the Doug Moran National Portrait Prize in 2000 and 2013. Art Collector: Julile Dowling:A Different way to the Future. In 2000, Dowling won the Mandorla Art Award in Religious Art and the Telstra National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award in Painting Award in the same year. In 2002 she was recognised as Australia's Most Collectible Artist by the magazine Australian Art Collector Art Collector: Issue 19 and in 2006 she received an Honorary Doctorate in Literature from Murdoch University. http://our.murdoch.edu.au/University-Secretarys-Office/_document/University-History/Honorary-Degrees/Citation-Julie-Dowling-2006.pdf

Early life

Dowling was born an identical twin with her 6 minutes older twin sister Carol, who became a university lecturer, radio documentary maker and writer. Born to her unwed Badimaya mother in poverty, Dowling was racially vilified due to the extensive documentation held on her family and herself till she became 18 years old. Dowling discovered this as she was one of the first members of her family who based on the fairness of her appearance could readily access information in state held archives in 1986 when the Australian Freedom of Information Act came into effect. Her role along with her sister was to assist much older family relatives to find family members within government held records that had previously been denied them.

Dowling’s childhood was like her mother’s in that she was on the run from child welfare living from one state housing commission home or flat to another, for fear of being removed from her mother. This experience influenced her choices in portraiture, as well as the earliest use of Badimaya First Nation memory customs in recognising lost family members on sight while travelling on public transport.The West Australian: Dowling's images of love and loss Aboriginal Art + Activism

Personal life

Dowling is a survivor of long term sexual and physical violence at the hands of a white relative who married into her family. This experience has influenced many of her paintings and has also informed her activism for the rights of women and children within First Nation communities globally. Dowling has donated art works to help the causes she champions and is active on social media channels in her advocacy for Land Rights, Stolen Wages, care for disabled & mentally impaired, drug addiction and the repatriation of First Nation human remains from museums and universities internationally. Dowling is also in favour of compensation for slavery, closing prisons, ending all mining on sacred lands, ending Paper Genocide and the white washing of historically kept documentation of First Nation people, stopping the forced closure of remote communities, ending forced child removal from First Nation culture and is a strong advocate for autonomous self-determination away from the Australian colonial state. Aboriginal Art + Activism

In 2011 Julie Dowling was diagnosed officially with Lipoedema stage 4 which is a hereditary fat disorder. She is at present disabled and unable to walk unaided. Dowling practices Badimaya spiritual beliefs and is an advocate for religious freedom.The West Australian: Dowling's images of love and loss

Portraiture

Julie Dowling's portraits are often viewed as dissident or radicle in their scope as they advocate autonomous self-rule for First Nation communities within Australia via the subjects she paints - First Nation elders, stolen children, prisoners, fellow activists, deceased & living relatives, actors, singers and other artists. Many positively view her art as being ‘grassroots’ yet global being the from the generation where the internet entered into the lives of First Nation people to reach out into the world towards other First Nation artists and influences while still maintaining community cultural ties within her home in semi-rural Maddington in Western Australia. Dowling has stated on many occasions within social media on her web site that her art is influenced by the charter for humanity against racism. Influenced politically by the UN with UNDRIP many of the causes found in her art are those she personally advocates such as cultural renewal and environmental protection but that it can only truly occur when land is vacated & returned without the use of the Native Title Act to First Nation communities Dowling views the Native Title Act and many other colonial state policies as illegal and not true land rights for First Nation people in Australia. Dowling paints icon works use found objects surrounding her portraits which are influenced by Catholic renaissance painting style and works done in a chiaroscuro style influenced by Dutch & Italian renaissance masters such as Rembrandt, Artemisia Gentileschi and Caravaggio. (example)