I am constantly amazed by Kartika's seemingly limitless energy. In fact, I sometimes find it challenging just keeping up with this Great-Grandmother who is a quarter-century my senior. I get the impression she can do just about anything she sets her mind to. So one day when I was visiting Ibu Kartika in 2010, I found myself wondering if she had ever applied her vast creative energy towards music.
I love the guitar, and I get a lot of pleasure from playing it. I decided it might be nice to give Kartika an instrument as a token of my affection and respect for her. She loves music, but as it turns out she has never played. I imagined she could relax with the guitar and discover something new, perhaps express herself creatively in a fresh way.
So I bought her a nice, locally-made guitar and presented it to her, along with a couple of introductory lessons. She was delighted with the present and learned a few chord positions quickly. But after a while she told me that she hoped I would not mind if she painted on the guitar instead of playing it. Of course I encouraged her to do whatever she liked, as it was her guitar. I imagined that the painted instrument would make a striking addition displayed on the wall of her home or gallery, and I was happy to have provided her with some inspiration, even though it was not quite in the way I had imagined.
A few days later she showed me the now painted guitar, and asked me if I liked it. It was beautiful, with colourful flowers, a butterfly on the headstock, an Affandi-like shining sun, and a pair of familiar-looking eyes peeking through the foliage. I admired it, and she explained that she could see me sitting in the garden from her studio while she worked, and she felt inspired to depict a figure meditating among flowers on the guitar. She said she had made many portraits and many flower paintings over the years, but this was the first time she had ever combined a flower painting with a portrait painting, and the first time she had ever painted on a musical instrument. Then she smiled and said she hoped I would accept the painted guitar as a present for my children. I protested a bit but eventually accepted it gratefully, of course, and the next day I bought another guitar as a replacement and gave her that one to play. But she never practiced, as far as I can tell, and this second guitar has since been borrowed by one of her grandsons who is learning.
The idea of painting the guitar seems to have inspired Kartika though, and she has since accepted two electric guitars which she has in her possession and is working on (ie she has them by her bed and looks at them every day waiting for the perfect moment of inspiration). These guitars - a Stratocaster and a Telecaster - were given to Ibu Kartika to paint by the great Balinese guitarist Dewa Budjana, who I understand hopes to include them in a museum of the guitar in Bali which he is planning. You can read (in Indonesian) about Dewa Budjana's initial visit to Kartika here http://www.dewabudjana.com/read-57.php