Draw Your Feelings – Rukmini Poddar – Ep 136

Rukmini Poddar is an artist, educator, and designer. Her creative passion lies at the intersection of emotional wellness and creative storytelling. She is an artist who draws feelings.

She admits that stumbled into art. It wasn’t a planned career path. When Rukmini graduated college, she was burnt out. As a graphic designer, she spent much of her time on the computer. She wanted to get her hands dirty, so she dove into the 100-Day Project. She started playing with watercolors and made abstract doodles. She started drawing her feelings to express her creativity.

She’d post them on Instagram. Before she knew it, it became the anchor for her day. By the end of the 100 days, her life was changed. People would comment and say, “I’ve always felt this way and I’ve never had words for it.” Something extremely personal to her became universal. She found a community that resonated with her work. It became her guiding light.

Drawing her feelings led to a passion for art she never knew existed. She shares more about her journey to finding herself and helping others connect with their emotions in this wonderful conversation.

Listen if you are interested in…

• Learn more about Rukmini Poddar [2:22]
• Drawing your feelings together [8:00]
• The magical process of art-making [9:59]
• Rukmini’s family’s perspective on her art [13:14]
• Rukmini’s career in graphic design [16:23]
• Rukmini’s art-making process [23:00]
• Sign up for an Art2Life retreat [25:40]
• Making the invisible visible [26:51]
• From group classes to writing a book [29:49]
• Helping others unlock their emotions [33:50]
• Why Rukmini is passionate about her work [39:57]
• How life is a series of differences [42:31]
• Balancing the tension between opposite emotions [47:19]
• What’s happening next for Rukmini [53:23]

The magical process of art-making

Rukmini believes that playing and art-making is an expression of the soul. It’s almost an act of resistance. Our society conditions us not to play. We’re brainwashed to work and strive and grind our knuckles.

Rukmini just spent time with her four-year-old nephew and enjoyed watching him run around and play and just be. When we play, we’re tapping into something so inherent and important. Magic happens.

We’re allowing our intuition to take hold. We’re being who we actually are. It opens doors and possibilities. We’re the most free when we feel the most ourselves. When we’re doing the thing that’s our purpose, it’s energetic and easy.

The evolution of Rukmini’s art-making process

Rukmini draws what she’s feeling. She shares that it’s about noticing your emotions, separating yourself from them, putting them on paper, and sharing the work with someone else. That’s how you transform anything.

She thinks about emotions as a language. If she was feeling, “I want to get lost but I’m afraid of being found,” she’d create a character and draw it. She creates characters with limited features so they are universal. They are often without gender yet incredibly expressive.

When you have a feeling and it’s inside you and you put it on paper and talk about it, it’s not you anymore. You’re making the invisible, visible. You’re no longer being ruled by that feeling.

From group classes to writing a book

Rukmini’s book, “Draw Your Feelings: A Creative Journal to Help Connect with Your Emotions through Art,” was designed to be a journey for readers. The first four chapters lay the foundation of art. The last four cover relationships. It asks questions like, “How do you draw your relationship to yourself? To others? To your values? What does acceptance look like?”

It’s a guidebook for a new language—learning to express yourself. Many of us have such big feelings that words don’t suffice. As you go through the book, you’ll begin to expand your visual vocabulary. You learn to draw emotions, learn how those emotions attract each other, and what letting go looks like.

The creative process leads to lightbulb moments. Every stroke tells a story that matters to your soul.

Draw your feelings together

During the pandemic, Rukmini started offering Zoom classes teaching others how to draw their feelings. She loves seeing the transformation of her students and the joy they feel when their work is witnessed and shared by others.

For those who are hesitant, she encourages them to simply get something on the page. She has them start with color, pattern, and lines. She’ll ask questions like, “How can a line show anger? What color represents sadness?”

Rukmini does a timeline exercise with large groups or teams. She’ll have them review their year and draw a graph. The x-axis is the timeline. The y-axis is their range of emotions. When they show them to each other, it’s an act of radical empathy. They may have appeared to be at the top of their game when they were grieving inside. Suddenly, it wasn’t a bad year or a good year but one of a full life.

Drawing your feelings gives you permission to understand those feelings. It’s incredibly freeing. Will you listen to this episode and draw your feelings with us?

Resources & People Mentioned

• The 100 Day Project
• Joe Dispenza
• CreativeMornings
• Dan Martell

Connect with Rukmini Poddar

• Draw Your Feelings: A Creative Journal to Help Connect with Your Emotions through Art
• Follow on Instagram
• Rukmini’s Website
• Creative Wilderness: A Healing Arts Retreat

Connect with Nicholas Wilton and Art2Life

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