We recently connected with Uma Sanghvi and have shared our conversation below.

Uma, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

Thanks! I’ve noticed that the creative process brings up a lot of patterns. For example, perfectionism. In Big Magic, Elizabeth Gilbert wrote “I think perfectionism is just fear in fancy shoes and a mink coat, pretending to be elegant when actually it’s just terrified.”

I think of perfectionism as unhealed trauma. What’s fascinating to me is how painting flowers is helping to heal that part of me. This is what I mean… Perfectionism can lead to constriction and tightness in the mind, and in the work, too. But I’d rather my paintings have a loose and free quality to them. Vibrant and alive. I don’t want them to feel perfectionistic.

When I paint, I’m always thinking about loose brushstrokes. It’s like “how can I be freer? How can the work be looser?” As it turns out, there’s lots of ways to paint loose. One way is loose brushstrokes. And one way to get loose brushstrokes is to use your non-dominant hand.

When I was 16, I broke my wrist while snowboarding. I had to have a couple of surgeries on it. While I healed, I had to figure out how to write with my non-dominant (left) hand. This was during my junior year in high school, and there was a ridiculous amount of work to do — including college entrance exams, tennis team and in-class essays. So I picked up a pen or pencil, and I wrote. The writing was messy and slow, but it worked.

I even had to finish my AP Art portfolio with my left hand. The silver lining was that I had a compelling story for my college essays. I wrote about snowboarding, about becoming ambidextrous and most of all, what I learned about drawing and painting with my left hand. The artwork was messy and imprecise. But compelling. It was simpler. More childlike.

Fast forward a few decades… I remembered those left-handed paintings and wondered if it was time to try it again. This time, not out of necessity, but purely from a place of curiosity and exploration. When I paint with my non-dominant hand, I have less motor control over the brush, which results in wobbly brushstrokes. I love wobbly brushstrokes. They’re much more alive.

So I tried a left-handed painting a couple of years ago. My neurons got a workout. And I liked the way the painting turned out! Since then, most of my flower paintings have been left-handed. It’s just easier for me to paint loose that way. Plus I love using a different compartment of my brain.

But my favorite part is that painting this way (wobbly, imperfect, free) has helped me to loosen up in other creative channels as well. It’s a work in progress for sure. But I keep inviting more agility into my mind, and into my work.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I’m an artist and a mind-body coach based in Austin, Texas. My first love was art. I grew up in northern Virginia painting, drawing, playing piano and composing music. My Mom is creative and loves art, and she put me in art classes from a young age.

In college at Stanford University I majored in biology and minored in art with an emphasis on photography. I became a photojournalist and spent the next 15 years on assignment all over the world, from Papua New Guinea to Haiti to Sri Lanka. I eventually took a job as a professor teaching photojournalism at Ohio University.

More recently, I traded my cameras and lenses for brushes and paint! It feels good to get back to my creative roots — drawing and painting. I stopped doing those things in college, and I really missed it.

Actually, I dreamed about paintings for more than ten years before I got back into the studio. I began having these vivid dreams of paintings — they were these large canvases filled with bright fields of color. Many of them were all one color: bright yellow. I felt the dreams were a sign that I was supposed to get back to making art. But it took more than a decade before I finally listened and took action.

Finally, in April of 2021, I started painting again. It was so much fun! Like reconnecting with a part of myself that I had completely forgotten about. Since then, art has become a big part of my life once again. These days I paint flowers and abstracts. I learn a lot about life from painting, and vice versa.

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

For me, art is about joy. For some people, art is highly conceptual. They’re here to explore an idea like time or technology. But my work is simpler than that. If the work comes from joy, and it creates joy in others, that’s enough for me.

I study a book called “A Course in Miracles”. In the Course, it says that “to be inspired is to be in the spirit”. I agree entirely. Like meditation or prayer or walking in the woods, for me creativity is about communion with Spirit. About being in the flow. In that state, you can go to a place beyond words — to a feeling state of joy, awe, beauty, rhythm, unity, expansiveness, timelessness. Also, it’s fun. It’s not a concept as much as it is an experience. That’s what drives my creative work.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

The best part is the connections I make with others, including art collectors, teachers and fellow artists. I really love that discovery process.

One of the most meaningful ways I connect with creatives is through coaching. As a coach, I work with artists, writers and other creators by helping them let go of patterns like fear, chronic procrastination, immobilizing perfectionism, overwhelm, distraction and self-doubt. These patterns are very common in creative people, but very few understand that. They get stuck, don’t take steps forward on their work, and then think that there’s something seriously wrong with them. There isn’t!

After two decades in photojournalism, painting, writing etc, I love sharing what I’ve learned about the creative process with my community. It’s about making friends with your brain, connecting with your true self (your Higher Self) and it’s about having fun. Watching artists and writers find self-confidence and clarity — and get their work out into the world while having fun — is deeply gratifying for me.

Contact Info:

• Website: umasanghviart.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/uma.sanghvi.art/
• Other: bit.ly/umasanghviart

Image Credits
Photos of Uma by Amber Vickery Photography Photos of artwork by Uma Sanghvi