An artist’s journey: Leena Joshi
The voice behind the Make Share Thrive podcast, Leena shares how her creative journey was also a journey of finding her way back to herself.
Who are you? Can you share a bit about yourself?
I am Leena Joshi. I am a self-taught artist. I was born and brought up in India, and now live in New Jersey with my husband and our daughter. In 2020 I quit my part-time job and started working towards my dream of becoming a full-time working artist.
In March 2021 I officially launched my own website and started selling my work online. I work out of my beautiful, humble home studio. It has big windows and a lot of natural light. I am very thankful to have a space where I get to dream, imagine and create beauty.
I primarily work in acrylics and abstract expressionism is my first love. I am known mostly for my vibrant, joyful abstracts. Through expressive brushwork, vivid colours and movement, I translate my experiences, my energy and emotions in all the art I make.
I also like to dabble in watercolours and enjoy making mixed media paintings. Recently I have also started to explore oil paints. Being a self-taught artist, the medium has always intimidated me; but I am quite enjoying it – the texture and blendability of the oil paints is unmatched.
What has your creative journey been like?
Long and winding. I was always artistically inclined – I remember drawing and painting as a child, making things out of mud in our yard, draping my Mum’s saree, cutting old clothes, hand stitching them into costumes, repurposing old jewellery, pretending to be in a fashion show… Come to think of it, I am a maker at my core – I always was and always will be. It did take a while for me to embrace and embody this truth. My creative journey so far has been about finding and accepting who I really am.
We take on so many roles and identities in different phases of our lives that we tend to forget what we are meant to do and who we are meant to be. Then there is social, cultural and generational conditioning that not only expects but demands – especially for women to live their lives a certain way. That is what happened in my case. I come from a very academically focused family. Even though I was average in school, I was always encouraged to study hard and get good grades. My whole life path was already laid out for me, and I followed that path. I went to university, got a degree in biology, got married, had a kid, became a full-time mum and a homemaker.
A part of me was really happy, but there was another part that was just unfulfilled, frustrated and over time it got resentful. Years of conditioning dictated that I should be happy and content, but this other part of me wanted more. My identity and sense of self got so tied up in the roles I was playing. I wanted to know who I was beyond those roles. I was caught up in an internal conflict of being content and wanting more. And for a very long time I felt guilt and shame for wanting to be more.
“We take on so many roles and identities in different phases of our lives that we tend to forget what we are meant to do and who we are meant to be.”
I started to experience an emptiness creeping inside me. I did not understand what it was or why it was at the time, but it was powerful enough to cause depression and anxiety. I suffered for three years without knowing what was going on with me. In retrospect I can tell what that emptiness was. There was this creative part of me which I had ignored for a very long time, to meet the needs and expectations of people around me. And I believe when you deny your desire to follow the path of your creativity, when you deny your truth; with each passing day, your energy depletes and you get farther away from yourself.
Thankfully, I was able to find my way back to myself. For me, healing meant saying yes to my creativity. It meant bridging the gap between the life I was living and the life I wanted to live. I was pursuing painting as a hobby for almost a decade, but it wasn’t until 2019 that I truly and wholeheartedly committed to grow as an artist. It took some conscious choices and deliberate action and it took a tremendous amount of inner work. I got a part-time job to support my art; I enrolled in a colour theory course in The Parsons New School.
I became like a sponge. I started to read art books, listened to art podcasts, and started working with mentors. I started to educate myself about art and business, I committed to my art practice. In December 2020 during a 100 day painting challenge, I had a breakthrough – I found my creative voice and I knew it was time for me to take the leap and go full-time as an artist.
Do you explore these experiences in your podcast?
In January I started a podcast called Make Share Thrive. It is a podcast for artists, makers and creatives. I recently wrapped up season one which feels absolutely surreal. In the published episodes I share everything that I have learned so far in my own creative journey. I candidly talk about the ups and downs, and what it takes to live a creative life.
I openly talk about my journey and struggles on social media. As I opened up and shared my story, it led to women reaching out to me and telling me how they are going through the same. All these stories made me realise how universal human emotions are and when I show a little courage, it opens up a door for others to do the same. I wondered if there were more people like me who needed to get in touch with their creativity to heal. That is why I started Make Share Thrive – to encourage and to support those who needed it.
What advice do you have for fellow artists and makers navigating their way?
There are so many challenges we as artists face at different stages of our creative journey. The biggest and the most common one that we all face is comparison. No matter where we are in our journey, I think it’s true for everyone. It is so easy to fall into this trap and think what we have to offer to the world is not good enough, we are not doing enough, we are not growing fast enough, or we are not getting enough opportunities.
In my personal experience, these thoughts only limit us and hinder our progress. They take away our focus from what really matters: our work.
It takes constant and deliberate efforts to overcome these thoughts. A few ways I deal with this is by journaling, just brain dumping everything on paper brings me a lot of clarity. I do a social media detox from time to time; I limit my scrolling and don’t look at what others are doing. I would also like to share two affirmations that I use to calm and re-centre myself:
1. I am exactly where I am meant to be.
2. My work will always find the people who need it most.
What inspires your designs?
I draw inspiration from all sorts of things, situations and experiences. I like to think of my work as an intersection between my inner world and the outer world – my inspiration comes from both.
It comes from my own thoughts about life as well as my surroundings. From how I am experiencing the very real, very tangible outer world and also my inner realm, where there is no sense of time and space – it’s just thoughts, feelings and emotions, the intangible, the unquantifiable. My canvas is where these two very different but related worlds collide.
I love wildflowers and rain, I collect rocks and seashells, I love traveling and taking in everything the new places have to offer.
All my cherished memories, collected moments, the paths wandered and the beauty gathered, becomes my art.
Life is so rich and layered and complex and hidden in those complexities is a lot of beauty. It just needs to be discovered, brought into light, and that is what my work is about.
@leena.joshi.art
New Jersey, United States
