We were lucky to catch up with Ragni Agarwal recently and have shared our conversation below.

Ragni, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Do you think folks should manage their own social media or hire a professional? What do you do?

I manage my own social media on multiple platforms. And it is my primary source of marketing and community outreach. I like challenging myself creatively so it can be fun to come up with content ideas and new strategies and learn new tools and tricks. I would say the majority of my commission work comes from social media and a significant portion of my design work. So it’s important for me to devote a good chunk of my business time to social media. But I am also learning that it can be a time suck and while I am a creative, it’s hard to fuel that creativity into actually making art + content and can become draining. So I am hoping to be able to hire someone to help me with social media very soon.

Ragni, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Driven by a pop art aesthetic, bold colors and my Indian heritage, the underlying themes in my work are inclusion and the celebration of all types of beauty. I hope that people who experience my work feel both a sense of whimsy and optimism and feel seen. Born out of necessity, art is my compass through the unpredictable landscape of my mind. Being a creative isn’t an option for me. It is a necessity. It is my therapy. Mental health, body (dis)illusions and self destructive thoughts and behaviors are the focus of my work. I do not believe in societal pressures or definitions of beauty, and through my work I am a part of the counterculture redressing this issue. I draw women in all their beautiful forms, shapes, sizes and colors. They are the epitome of creativity. I am woman and this is my journey.
I have been a graphic designer for over 20 years now, a digital illustrator for over a decade, and a professional painter for a little over a year. In that time, I have had the opportunity to work with several amazing clients, including Always Brand, Palladium, Tasveer, SAADA, The Other Art Fair, and HBO Max. I had the honor of being 1 of 5 artists selected to create an art piece for Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture 19th Amendment Centennial Celebration, one of my favorite projects to date. Some of the other accomplishments I’m most proud of is illustrating a children’s book, painting 2 murals at local schools, live painting for PRIDE events and being able to focus on topics that are important to me, like mental health and body disillusionment through my art. But honestly, anytime I get to physically share my art with humans in real life, I am thrilled. That feeling will never get old.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I created my first digital illustration in 2009 while in grad school for graphic design. My career continued as a graphic designer but I was never 100% fulfilled doing just design work especially while working in the tech space. I love graphic design but never felt that my creative muscle was being exercised or challenged in a way where all the parts of me showed up. And by shutting down that creativity and quieting the voice that said she need to be let out, the very things that made me me started to fade away. In June 2018 during a particularly vulnerable point in my mental health journey, I decided to take a leap and create consistently for 30 days on my own terms and gather the courage to share my creations on instagram. Those 30 days changed my life forever. It was during those 30 days that I started to dream a career that actually made my heart sing. The last four years have transformed my very being from not just a career shift to include multiple disciplines but an entire lifestyle shift that embraces living more artistically, healing my mental health and embracing who I am more freely and finding beauty in even the most mundane bits. According to some of the artists I admire most, the five year theory is it. Give something you truly want five years to flourish, five years of hard work, five years of evolution and magic can happen. I’m one year away from that five year mark and I can feel it. I feel the transformation. And I’m really grateful for my resilience, my belief in myself that this can be a reality, and my community. As someone who just turned 40, this isn’t the path most take. But I don’t believe in societal timelines and will resiliently find my own way.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

My goal is always to show people that there isn’t one way to living out your dreams and that we should question everything. Make more voices heard and shine the light on the people that don’t always show up in pop culture, the underrepresented. I want to show other confused little girls that are trying to find their footing and don’t feel like they fit in, they belong. And they are seen.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.ragniagarwal.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ragni_agarwal_/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RagniAgarwalDesigns
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ragniagarwal/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/RagniAgarwal