As the editing for the "Kartika" documentary continues, I thought I would share some stills of Ibu Kartika from the 30 August 2015 interview footage that I am working on this week. We spoke at length that day at her home in a conversation that focused on her personal life as a daughter, wife, mother and free spirit. Over the course of 7 non-consecutive days I shot more than 8 hours of conversation/interviews with Ibu Kartika, in English and in Indonesian. It was such a special experience for me to share that time in dialogue with such a great artist and great soul, a true privilege. Those who know her will understand exactly what I mean when I say that she was always inspiring and illuminating, her energy inexhaustible, her openness and insight amazing. And now I am working on the footage with the hope that the finished film can convey something of her spirit and personality, and rise to the challenge of doing so with the appropriate artistry and radiance.

As you can probably imagine, editing over 8 hours of Kartika talking about her life and work to fit into a proposed 80 -110 minute documentary is a challenging process. The translation and subtitling alone - for the Indonesian material into English, and the English material into Indonesian - is daunting. Further, there is the 7 hours or so of (priceless, if I may say so myself) footage I have of her painting, and the 8 hours or so of related material - in her gallery, her father Affandi's gallery, the setting at her home, Yogyakarta and the surrounding Java landscape, the nearby active volcano Gunung Merapi, the Borobudur temple complex etc etc. And I took over 1400 photos, copied over 300 family photos from Ibu Kartika's collection, acquired hours of film of Kartika on Indonesian TV, her home videos, footage of her father Affandi... So, what can I say? The editing process continues, and I had better get back to work! ;)