ARTIST BIOGRAPHY: Sita Karna

Sita Karna

I'm 33 years old. Growing up we lived in India to be near my grandfather in Madhubani dLstrict which is where Mithila art flourishes. My aunts and neighbors would draw after they'd done the housework and earn money by selling their paintiAgs. When I came back from school I would see their paintings or watch as brides did their evening worship by making designs on the ground with dung. Often I did all the designs for the new brides. On other occasions my mother would tell me to come back from school quickly to make designs with the rice paste she made for me. I don't know why I had a great interest in making designs but it was in me, just as its in my daughter now. 

From the time I went to school my mother made me learn to embroider napkins, towels, bedcovers with images of temples and. gods--she said I would have to show these skills in my future house. I studied until grade seven. I was 13 when my father made a contract for my marriage and then everyone said, "if she doesn't learn how to cook rice we'll feel ashamed. She must quit her studies. 11 1 wanted to take the seventh grade exam which was in another village but everyone from the neighborhood said I couldn't go to another village. For two years I was only allowed to learn household arts. Then I had the chance to take the exam in my village but I never studied again because at fifteen I was married. 

I didn't know anything about marriage. I didn't want to marry but I couldn't say so--that's not our custom. My husband was 23. He had taken a five-year course in ayervedic medicine so he was much more experienced than I. He wasn't shy but I was. In our caste on our marriage night we must consumate the marriage. Everything happened but I had no idea what had happened. He stayed eleven days, and then he took me to Janakpur. 

From that time till now mv husband has never mistreated me. Some people say I'm lucky because from early on I worshipped -the goddess Gauri. Now too, if any trouble comes I put god inside and then I am at peace. 

But when I came to my husband's house there was real trouble. My husband's father did no work, and my husband was the eldest of six of his siblings, four of whom were brothers. From my husband's tiny salary we had to meet all expenses for the entire household. Then after a year I was pregnant, then in another year and a half I was pregnant again. Both were girls. 

There wasn't enough money so my own father helped by giving us money or taking me to his house. Then again I became pregnant with twin boys. Still no one else worked. My husband found work far away and I wanted to join him but there was no one to do the housework. One of my son's died, then I gave birth to another daughter, and then another son. 

The brothers married and started working and moved out. Now still I live with my husband, two sisters-in-law, my parents-in-law and my five children. My father-in-law is a religious man who sits all day and counts his holy beads and repeats the name of Lord Ram- So that's why finding work makes me so happy. 

I used to think I couldn't educate my children. Then I decided myself that I must work, and next I thought to myself I'd like to do art. But where could I do art? 

Then one day I came to a place where I heard so much noise coming over the wall and all coming from women. I found out that all the voices were those of women making paintings. I went home and and with  the black color from the bottom of a pot, I made designs. Much time passed, then I was granted an interview. Out of 61 people I was selected. 

I most like wedding (kobar and bamboo) and aripan designs. In our neighborhood you have to draw a picture to send a bride sindhur (red powder) which the groom puts in the bride's hair at the time of marriage. The design must have two kobar, as well as bamboo, a lotus, and ten forms of god. We fold the paper to make a package from which the powder can't escape, and in each folded area there is a design. There is only one way to fold this paper and not everyone today knows how to do it. So my daughter and I sometimes do it for others, because if they don't send the sindhur this way the bride's parents will be upset. 

Now my biggest worry is about how to have my children educated. All of my money goes into the schooling of my children. Do you think I should educate my daughters further or get them married? You know, the more girls study, the more families demand for dowry. So I have to remind myself that even in my dreams I never had imagined I would some day ride a bicycle. My family is now very happy that I work, that I can go to Kathmandu, that I can ride a bike. Before I came to the center I'd never made paintings on paper--so who really knows what is in my daughters, future!