Born in Alice Springs on 6 August 1966, her language group Pitjantjatjara. Her mother is a Warlpiri woman from Yuendumu. Her father is a Pitjantjatjara man who grew up at Hermannsburg. Vera grew up at Amoongana, Hermannsburg and Alice Springs, receiving her secondary schooling in Alice Springs. In 1984 she designed a stained glass window for the Araluen Art Centre in Alice Springs as part of a college project. Today she speaks six Central Australian languages. Since 1987, she has been living at Ernabella with her husband. In 1988 she began working in the print workshop at Ernabella Arts. The following year, she exhibited her screen printed and handpainted designs in the Australian Conservation Foundation’s Desert Impressions exhibition in Melbourne and Ernabella Arts exhibition Look at us Now at Tandanya in Adelaide. Vera was awarded the 'Best Developing Artist in SA’ in 1989. Her screenprints for fabrics have been exhibited in Adelaide, Alice Springs, Sydney and Melbourne. Vera also works on canvas, and at the time of writing had just begun to work with lithographs and etchings. Her screenprint Cattle Dogs and Snakes was included in an exhibition of Contemporary Australian Textiles in Krefeld, Germany. In July 1993 Vera attended a print workshop at the University of the Northern Territory in Darwin to further her studies in this medium.
- Writers:
- Johnson, Vivien
- Date written:
- 1994
- Last updated:
- 2011
