Life Through Art and Art Through Life

American mural artist and painter, Kathleen Scarboro, educated in the arts both in the US and France, is the co-founder of the Friends of Community Public Art, Illinois, USA. Her public art includes mural paintings, mosaics and life size sculptures in various cities in the US. In an interview with N Kalyani, for TerraGreen, the artist shares the making of her art and more.

- N Kalyani

Please tell us about your recent book Vagabond Soul. Your paintings blend various components such as flora, fauna, water bodies, draperies and human figures in an aesthetically enchanting way giving your works as much spiritual, social and emotional significance as environmental importance.

Vagabond Soul, a bilingual in English and French, published in France and released this year, features forty of my India-centric paintings made over the last 20 years, as also poems and texts from Indian writers. The basic role of a work of art is communication. My mural experience taught me to concentrate on grand themes and pulled me to a situation where I was no longer interested in my own personal trajectory, but with our shared story. So, thanks to my public art orientation, my eyes, rather than looking inside, were directed towards the outside, towards other people and their ways of life.

You have portrayed flora and fauna in almost all your India paintings either in a realistic or stylized way. There is a variety of plant species as also animal species, both terrestrial and aquatic, that one can find in your works. So one can find the heliconia, plantain, lotus and rose; the elephant and peacock; insects like the butterfly and dragonfly; water birds; and sea creatures. Please share your views on creating such works.