Kathleen Petyarre, rom the Utopia region in the Northern Territory, is renowned for her intricate and culturally significant dot paintings. The thorny devil lizard (Moloch horridus), a small, spiny reptile native to the central Australian desert, plays a significant role within the Dreaming narratives of the Utopia community. As a creature of the land, it is regarded not merely as an animal but as an important spiritual symbol within Indigenous Australian belief systems. The Dreaming, a term used to describe the time of creation and the ongoing spiritual connection between people, animals, and the land, frames the lizard within a broader cosmological context.

Petyarre adheres to the traditional dot painting method, a hallmark of the Utopia community's artistic practice. Through the meticulous application of thousands of tiny dots, Petyarre creates intricate patterns that both reflect and evoke the patterns found in the natural world. The layering of dots, here in a minmal, monchormatic hue, represents the desert's ever-changing landscape and the movement of the thorny devil lizard across it. The use likely alludes to the arid, sun-baked earth of central Australia at night, while the patterns of the lizard's spiny body may be mirrored in the composition, emphasising the intimate relationship between the creature and its environment.

Petyarre’s work, as exemplified in Thorny Devil Lizard Dreaming, is a reflection of the broader Indigenous Australian tradition of using art as a form of storytelling. Through her visual language, she articulates a personal connection to the land defined by communal and ancestral ties that define Indigenous identity and community.