When the English came to India they were scared and offended when they saw paintings of Kali. She had a scary face, with her tongue hanging out angrily. Her hair was wild, curly, untamed. She was always naked, covered only with her hair or a necklace made of severed heads or skulls. This deity was very different from the others that were calm in meditation pose, so Kali was banned, in a way. When I read this, it makes me think that we, Europeans, had to be the least open-minded people on the planet in those days. But Kali's history is particlarly intersting. It starts with the demon Raktabija. Every time a drop of this demon's blood spelt and fell to the ground it would transform into a seed and sprout a duplicate of himself. That made him indestructible and no Deva was able to defeat him. All the deities gathered to create a deity that could defeat him and they created Kali. She defeated him during a fierce battle by drinking every drop of the blood before it would hit the ground. Losing her mind from evil blood of the demon she entered into a furious uncontrolled rage. Shiva then let her step on him and when she realized what she had done she came back from the madness. This was possible because Kali is actually the most gentle goddess of all Hindu gods. There is a story about how Shiva would turn into a child to win against Kali (in a game) because first of all Kali is a mother.
Kali is the personification of that aspect of the divine mother that compassionately destroys the ego. Of all the forms of Devi, she is the most compassionate because she provides liberation to her children. She is the counterpart of Shiva the destroyer. They are the destroyers of illusions. The ego sees Mother Kali and trembles with fear because the ego sees in her its own eventual demise. A person attached to his or her ego will not be receptive to Mother Kali and she will appear in a fearsome form. A mature soul who engages in spiritual practice to remove the illusion of the ego sees Mother Kali as very sweet, affectionate, and overflowing with infinite love for Her children. The reason why I chose to paint this deity is that Kali is, for me, our true self, unapologetic, the one that doesn't care about what others think, kind to all but indifferent to others ego and her own. Free of her own illusions of reality, able to shine her true self. She is surrounded by Marigolds in celebration of the true self.