
“I don't paint what I see. I paint what begins to see through me.”
About Malena
Malena Gamboa is a quiet observer of life, drawn to the spaces between words and the quiet truths that often go unnoticed. She finds beauty in simplicity and is most interested in what can’t be easily explained—the feeling of something deeper moving through ordinary moments. Her work is guided by a gentle attention to the unspoken and an openness to the way spirit emerges in everyday life.
She lives in Southern California with her family, where calm mornings, wild edges, and warm light blend into the texture of her days.
A longtime practitioner of Transcendental Meditation, Malena is drawn to the arts, physics, and philosophy for the way they open her heart and quiet her mind. She believes healing happens through presence and service—by showing up with integrity, by being love rather than chasing it. Her path is less about striving and more about softening into what’s already true.
Her paintings are quiet invitations—spaces of stillness where something subtle can be felt rather than understood. She creates as a way of listening, not performing, and holds art as a spiritual practice: a way to participate in life, attune to its rhythm, and let something greater speak through her.
Her work is shaped by years of inner inquiry and inspired by the writings of Ken Wilber, Clare W. Graves, Terry Patten, Ram Dass, Byron Katie, Sri Aurobindo, Alan Watts, and Joseph Campbell.
Her library is coming soon—a thoughtfully curated list of books and writings she personally recommends for anyone on the path seeking deeper understanding, greater presence, and a bit more peace.
Thank you for being here. I offer my art not to be understood, but to create space—for stillness, for reflection, for the quiet truths that often go unnoticed. If something here stirred something in you, even gently, then it’s done what it came to do. May you carry that presence with you, wherever you are on the path. - Malena
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