Local Artist Transforms Obama’s Biography

For one month, as if possessed, Palisades resident Calliope Caloyera Babu-Khan worked feverishly on her Barack Obama mural, a colorful depiction of the President-elect’s path to the White House. ‘I couldn’t wait to get up and start working,’ says the Greek-American. ‘I never cared for politics but this time he convinced me. I like how he has reached out to all people. I admired him so much for his speeches and the way he conducted himself.’ This is not the first biographical mural Babu-Khan has painted. Several of her colorful, exuberant tributes were included in a solo exhibition at the West L. A. City Hall several years ago. Each pays homage to individuals who have inspired her. Babu-Khan earned a fine arts degree from UCLA and throughout her career she has explored different techniques using oils, acrylics, drawings, printmaking and collage. In 1980, she established the India Arts Council at the Pacific Asia Museum in Pasadena, and served as president through 1987. She has been vice president of Women Painters-West from 1989-1992. The Obama mural includes 48 6-in. by 5-in. squares that follow his life from his birth in 1961 up to his inauguration day in 2009. Along the way, there are milestones’his boyhood wish to become president of the United States as early as first grade, his childhood and early education in Hawaii, his trip to Indonesia to visit his mother’along with telling personal details, such as that his grandmother, who raised him, preferred to be called Toot, the Hawaiian name for grandmother. Babu-Khan’s imagination and art have converted what could have been simply a prosaic biography into a beautiful tapestry. She has incorporated the patterning of Indonesian textiles under the title ‘President-Elect Barack Obama.’ ‘He’s American, he’s from Jakarta, so I have also put Indian patterns because of his respect for Hindu gods,’ she says. Babu-Khan’s own biography reflects a similar multicultural breadth. She was born in Greece but her husband, Shafi, is a native of India, whom she depicted in one of her biographical murals with big eyes, a Nehru jacket and a seven-strand necklace that represents his home state of Hyderabad. Babu-Khan completed the Obama banner in a month, getting up early to work on the project. She read all the books she could and painted and assembled the piece on a long, glass table at home. Her grandson, Alex Lehrhoff, assisted by photographing the piece to fabricate a poster. Her dream is to send the artwork to President Obama along with a note expressing her admiration. In looking forward to the transfer of power and future challenges, Babu-Khan understands that change is never easy, but ‘as Obama says, ‘All things are possible.”