Self-Taught Artist Goes from Facebook to the United Nations

When Namita Kulkarni was seven years old, she learned the word "artist" and felt in her bones that's what she'd become. More than two decades later, the self-taught painter from Bengaluru just proved that childhood intuition right.

Her watercolor and acrylic paintings will be exhibited at the United Nations in New York this June and July. The journey started with a simple Facebook post in December 2021.

ICAAD, a New York human rights organization, posted a call for artists to create work on any human rights subject. Namita applied on a whim. One week later, she was selected alongside four other artists from around the world.

What followed surprised even her. She completed two months of human rights coursework, dove into months of reading about indigenous worldviews, and created a series exploring humanity's relationship with nature through water, forests, oceans, and earth.

"Painting is as much a part of life as breathing," Namita says. "It has been a way for me to know what was going on inside me."

Her favorite piece features real pressed flowers blooming from a painted tree stump, surrounded by a luminous forest. The inspiration came from Richard Powers' novel The Overstory, which describes a dead tree as "an infinite hotel" teeming with life.

Another painting captures the indigenous Diné concept of water not as a resource, but as family. A lone figure stands with arms open, embraced by the fierce, life-giving ocean, while real gold leaf dust dissolves into the night sky above.

Why This Inspires

Namita's work bridges two powerful ideas: that formal training isn't the only path to excellence, and that ancient indigenous wisdom holds answers to modern problems. Reading Sand Talk by Aboriginal academic Tyson Yunkaporta opened her mind to entirely different ways of relating to the world.

She learned the Diné word "Yaaté," which describes that shared moment of awe when two people witness something magnificent in nature and simply look at each other, speechless. She painted it: two silhouettes on a hilltop, arms raised toward a vast blue flower blazing against a warm sky.

"Awe is a lot closer than we give it credit for," she says. "It can be found in one wholehearted gaze into a flower growing out of the soil under our feet, if one knows how to look."

From a casual scroll through Facebook to the United Nations, Namita's journey proves that opportunity can arrive in the most unexpected places.