A multi-level car park in western Sydney has become the canvas for Dharug man Shane Smithers' latest Indigenous artwork.
And it's a clear example of how from little things, big things can grow.
The new 1000 space commuter car park was officially opened at Leppington Station last month
The design on the outside of the car park was based on a tiny painting by Indigenous artist Shane Smithers, who also attending the opening ceremony on November 22. The car park will service the growing needs of the Camden community.
Dr Smithers of Katoomba uses traditional Aboriginal symbols and designs in a contemporary style to tell both ancient and modern stories.
Dr Smithers said, the vertical white lines representing our connection to sky, meeting the horizontal red lines (connection to earth) is an abstraction of the Dharug 'country pattern' which is a simple hatch, "spread out like a chequer-board suggesting that the sky meets the earth, as a blanket covers the ground."
"This artwork is about this abundant country where the generative forces of the sky and earth come together to create life. This is the place where I live, where you live, where we live, together walking on the earth, touching the sky."
Dr Smithers, of the Burraberongal clan, said it started as a 50cm by 40cm artwork in Katoomba's Gallery 188. It was sold, bought back by him, and then ended up as the catalyst for the art that has been wrapped around a building with a 300 metre circumference. The original tiny artwork now stands as something of a talisman in his studio.
Dr Smithers works with a range of architects and engineers through his company 500 Voices and is part of a planning bid to do the interior artwork for the Upper Mountains tunnel.
He is also in discussion with Blue Mountains Council about creating Indigenous stone carvings in public areas in the Mountains.
"I've always been an artist in some way," he said. He also has a background as a carpenter and garment maker and said "I never design something that can't be built."
He loves the idea of working on "portals" from the past and present world and wants his legacy to be about bringing Indigenous stories, art and culture into public spaces. He has about another dozen large outdoor projects in process.
The new car park features more than 1300 solar panels on its roof and 10 electric vehicle charging stations. More than 900 people worked on the project.
