CREATIVITY

Creativity is the way I share my soul with the world.

- BRENÉ BROWN

Thoughts About PAINTING INDIA

KATHLEEN SCARBORO shares her journey as an artist, explaining why she has chosen the subjects that are so dear to her heart. In December 2023, she opened an exhibition entitled "Indian Women: Grace and Resilience" in the Town Hall of the 16th Arrondisement of Paris, France, to celebrate that journey, and we showcase some of those paintings here.

When I met Chariji in 1988, I had no idea that India would be important in my life, or that for thirty years I would devote myself exclusively to painting this subject. For meditators, life unfolds and reveals its main themes over time. As I look back over my trajectory, it seems that there was an inner logic that had its own momentum and all I had to do was follow along and do the work. I remember my painting teacher, Patrick Betaudier, used to say that when a painting is ripe to come into existence, it paints itself. I often feel that way.

Before starting meditation, I was already a professional painter. I had a good technique and I had the desire to produce art, but my true message, what exactly I wanted to paint, was not clear to me. So much art had been created, in so many directions, by so many artists, and I wasn't sure of my place in the general scheme of things. One day, as I was working on murals on Réunion Island, it suddenly seemed obvious what I wanted to paint, why, and for whom. I am certain this realization was the result of the meditation I had begun practicing. Meditation gives us the clarity to know ourselves, which leads to an understanding of how to use our abilities to share with others.