THE INSPIRATION PLACE PODCAST
Shubhashree Sangameswaran:
That was the best decision ever, because in hindsight, I think just taking that time out to draw every single day for 100 days, in some way, felt like I was just taking some part of the day back to myself, between caring for an infant, and a full-time job, and managing a house and everything. It just was the nicest feeling.
Speaker 2:
It’s the Inspiration Place podcast, with artist Miriam Schulman. Welcome to the Inspiration Place podcast, an art world inside a podcast for artists, by an artist, where each week, we go behind the scenes to uncover the perspiration and inspiration behind the art. And now, your host, Miriam Schulman.
Miriam Schulman:
Well, hey there, passion maker, this is Miriam Schulman, your curator of inspiration, and you’re listening to episode number 201 of the Inspiration Place podcast. Today, I’m chatting with an artist slash mother slash former engineer, who turned to art to give herself inner peace. So before we get into that interview, and I know you’re going to love it, I just wanted to chat with you a bit about how art provides an escape. And many of you may already know that. As this episode airs in 2022, and yes, we are still very much living through the effects of the pandemic virus.
In the last few years, our world has been turned upside down. We’re still navigating intermittent closures in the next … whenever there’s like a new variant, and at times, mandatory masking. Some of us still have work from home challenges, childcare challenges, and we keep hoping and we keep believing and we keep wishing that things will be back to normal. News flash, they’re not back to normal, and some of us have given up hope and think things will never go back to normal. We’re all just trying to continuously adapt to a life where uncertainty is the only guarantee. Now, of course, this has always been true. It has. I mean, even in February 2020, things were uncertain, we just didn’t know it. And things are always uncertain.
So hearing this with you now, not to pull you down, but to give you a little bit of light at the end of this. Now, there has been many ways that people have coped with the stress. Some of these ways have been better than others, like alcohol sales are really up. They’re at a record high, as is binge watching on streaming platforms. I know I binge watch YouTube decorating videos. But one positive sign, really positive sign, is that people are spending more on two different things, art supplies, shouldn’t surprise you, as well as home improvement items, hence my decorating videos. And that’s good news for us, that’s good news for anyone who sells art, any kind of art, not just visual art, or for anyone who teaches art, drama, pottery, all these things. So anyone who’s creating something that adds beauty to the world, who adds escape to the world, this is good news for us.
Now, people weighed down by the doldrums, they want to escape the daily grind. They want to add beauty to their life, and make time for themselves. They’re craving it now more than ever. Now, since July is World Watercolor Month, I wanted to make sure you got your hands on my free watercolor supply list. This is for you, whether you’ve never painted in watercolors before, or you have, and you just want to know what I use. So you can get that in the show notes. That’s for my DIYers, and that link is schulmanart.com/supplies. And also, if you’ve already got that, or maybe you’re itching to learn more, I’ve got some more good news. So I’ve just revamped my watercolor portrait MasterClass, and if portraits, or even watercolor, has always intimidated you, I want you to know that you can paint, and you can paint portraits, even if you think you can’t draw. Really.
Or perhaps you’ve been somebody who has been listening to my podcast on the sidelines and dreaming of painting, but think realistic painting is not for you. Listen, I make portrait painting not only easy, but more importantly, I make it fun. In this MasterClass, which, by the way, the MasterClass is 100% free, you’ll get a lesson pulled directly from the Watercolor Portrait Academy classes. And if you stay until the end, I’ll tell you more about that, what you’ll learn if you join me, and when you do, you won’t believe what you can accomplish, and your friends and family are going to be so amazed. By the way, if you do consider yourself a more advanced artist, I want you to know, if you’ve never tried watercolor, there’s nothing better to wake up your creativity and pull you out of those doldrums, and give you a little escape, then learning some new techniques.
So even if you don’t end up using that watercolor in your regular art practice, by learning something new, this is going to open up so much creativity and intuition for you, not just in your art practice, but in all areas of your life. So I really encourage you to sign up for that free portrait painting MasterClass, and to do so, head on over to schulmanart.com/demo. Again, I’ll link to that in the show notes. If you want to pop that into your URL, phone browser, whatever it’s called right now, before you forget, my name is spelled S-C-H-U-L-M-A-N, and then it’s A-R-T.com/demo, as in D-E-M-O. And now, on with the show.
Today’s guest is an illustrator, visual artist, writer, and runs Slowing Down Circle, a space for everyone to take some time out for themselves and use art as a tool to slow down and reflect. She’s a human mom and a cat mom, so she’s a mom to a little human and a little feline. And sustainability is a topic close to her heart, and she’s published a couple of illustrated books for adults and kids on that topic. She also loves all things food, fellow foodie, and when she isn’t eating, cooking, or baking, she’s probably illustrating food. Please welcome to the Inspiration Place, Shub. Well, hey there, Shub. Welcome to the show, how are you?
Shubhashree Sangameswaran:
I’m doing great. Thank you so much for having me.
Miriam Schulman:
Sure. So first of all, tell everybody where you are in the world.
Shubhashree Sangameswaran:
I am in [inaudible], India …
Miriam Schulman:
Beautiful.
Shubhashree Sangameswaran:
… all the way across the world from you.
Miriam Schulman:
And from the magic of the internet, we’re almost in the same room chatting with each other, so I’m in New York. So the reason I invited Shub is because she was one of the fellow artists who I saw was participating inside of a group program that I participated in. And I really liked your background and your message, and I thought we would have a lot to chat about today. So I’m so glad that you’ve been able to make the time, and we found a good time that worked for both of us. Because what time is it there right now?
Shubhashree Sangameswaran:
It’s 8:30 PM.
Miriam Schulman:
Okay, and it’s the morning for me. So she’s like, can I do another time other than midnight?
Shubhashree Sangameswaran:
My bedtime is usually 10:00 PM, so I wanted to be wide awake.
Miriam Schulman:
Yeah, my bedtime is actually kind of on the early side. I like my sleep.
Shubhashree Sangameswaran:
Good to know. Good to know, yeah. I mean … yeah.
Miriam Schulman:
[inaudible] fully appreciate people don’t want to stay up for me. All right, so let’s talk about food first, since you’ve put a lot of emphasis about that in your bio. So what kind of food do you like to make?
Shubhashree Sangameswaran:
Oh, all kinds. Yeah, Indian food, of course. There’s the everyday food, and then I also love South Asian food, Thai food. I love Italian food. Yeah, so mostly all kinds, I think.
Miriam Schulman:
So when I was an engineering student, I lived in a dorm, and I and somebody else were the only two Caucasian people in the dorm. I think there may have been like, first generation Americans there, but we were the only two. And so, on my floor, there was a lot of Indian women, and one of the moms came and would come to cook for her daughter. And that’s how I learned how to make-
Shubhashree Sangameswaran:
[inaudible].
Miriam Schulman:
… she would come, and she had one of the smallest rooms on the whole floor, by the way. And then, when she was dating, the mom would sleep on the floor to chaperone, just in case, right? It was pretty intense, but that’s how I learned how to make Upma.
Shubhashree Sangameswaran:
Oh, I love Upma. Yes.
Miriam Schulman:
Yes, so can you tell everybody what it is?
Shubhashree Sangameswaran:
Amazing.
Miriam Schulman:
Yeah, it’s so good.
Shubhashree Sangameswaran:
Yeah, it’s typically a breakfast dish, which is made with onions and some chili, and roasted semolina, which is broken wheat, a kind of broken wheat, and then all of it is cooked in water. Has this pudding-like consistency? Would you say that’s about right?
Miriam Schulman:
Yeah. So it’s a breakfast food, and it actually was surprisingly not hard to make it all. And the way we made it, though, we made it with cream of wheat instead of … I mean, that’s the way I was taught to make it. It’s basically, you throw everything in there, and then it kind of cooks. It’s like, [inaudible]. But yeah, it’s a savory breakfast dish.
Shubhashree Sangameswaran:
And it’s delicious.
Miriam Schulman:
It is, it’s really good. I should make that again. So it was very interesting, also, was, when I was doing that group program with you, I had somebody from my dorm from 30 years ago, reach out to me and say, were you the Miriam that I knew from 30 years ago? And if not, don’t-
Shubhashree Sangameswaran:
Amazing.
Miriam Schulman:
Isn’t that amazing?
Shubhashree Sangameswaran:
Yeah, wow. Amazing.
Miriam Schulman:
Yeah, so she actually is still an engineer.
Shubhashree Sangameswaran:
[inaudible].
Miriam Schulman:
I know you were an engineer, and I was an engineer.
Shubhashree Sangameswaran:
Yeah, I’m amazed to know that you were an engineer, too.
Miriam Schulman:
[inaudible]. I actually never was an engineer, so I got an engineering degree, and then I went to Wall Street, and then I became an artist, was my path. And are you still engineering?
Shubhashree Sangameswaran:
Nope, not anymore. Yeah, full time artist.
Miriam Schulman:
Okay, so let’s start there. How did you discover your inner artist? When did you start creating?
Shubhashree Sangameswaran:
Like everyone else, as a kid, it was something I really enjoyed. But then, when the time came to make a choice on a career, I wasn’t too sure. And like I say, I’m from Bangalore, which is known as the Silicon Valley of India. So by default, most of us become engineers, software engineers. So I did that, I got an engineering degree, I got a job for about 10, and then I worked for a decade in engineering jobs. And somewhere along the way, I took a watercolor lesson over a weekend, along with a friend of mine, and that sort of sparked the interest back. And then, the same friend one day came up to me and she said, hey, there’s this thing called the 100-Day Project, would you be interested in doing it? I said, sure, why not? Bear in mind that at this point, I had a seven-month-old baby in my hands, and then I had just gone back full time to my job.
And I said, sure, why not? Let’s add one more thing to my plate. But that was the best decision ever, because in hindsight, I think just taking that time out to draw every single day for 100 days, in some way, felt like I was just taking some part of the day back to myself, between caring for an infant and a full time job, and managing the house and everything. It just was the nicest feeling. And I would also end up writing a little bit about my day, or whatever I had drawn about, and I still have those journals, and it’s just amazing to go back and look at those. But anyway, so that happened, and over a period of time, I continued with the habit. Even if I didn’t do it every day, I just kept at it.
And I think about four or five years after that, we moved [inaudible], I quit my job. And then, I just began to draw and paint a little bit more because I was taking a break. And then … oh, I happened to visit a friend who used to run a baking studio. She was teaching baking, so this is where the food comes in. And she said, why don’t you just come and visit? So I did, and then I went there with my sketchbook, and then, as her students were baking, I was just sitting and watching them, and then I was painting.
And she really loved what I painted, and she said, why don’t you make some stuff for my studio? And so, that was my first commission ever. So I made some watercolor paintings of, I think, different kinds of breads and cinnamon rolls, and stuff like that. And yeah, so that’s where it all began. After that. I thought, hmm, maybe I could actually do something with this beyond having it just as a hobby. That’s how it all began, and yeah, it’s been a good ride so far, I think, yeah, five, six years in.
Miriam Schulman:
So you started selling art, paintings of watercolors, is that correct?
Shubhashree Sangameswaran:
Yeah, illustrations, as well. Yeah.
Miriam Schulman:
Okay. And then, when did you start teaching?
Shubhashree Sangameswaran:
That was … just before the pandemic hit, I started doing these workshops on visual journaling and travel journaling, and then the pandemic hit. And sometime last year, when things were especially bad in India, the number of cases were really bad, and I was beginning to feel a lot of restlessness. I felt like I want to do something, I want to volunteer to help people, but I couldn’t figure out how, because my daughter is still sick, and then she’d need us around.
So then I thought, why don’t I just do some workshops online, and treat them as a fundraiser, and all proceeds from those workshops would go for COVID relief. So I did that, and then I found out that surprisingly, this worked well in an online format. So pre-COVID, it was all physical, offline workshops, as we call them now. And then, last year, when I did the online workshops, it seemed like the format work. I think somewhere between last year and this year, I decided, yeah, these workshops have [inaudible] work, and the online format makes it easy for people from everywhere around the world to join. So yeah, that’s kind of how I became a teacher. Funnily enough, I still have trouble calling myself a teacher, but yeah, that’s what it is.
Miriam Schulman:
And for your art business, what is the split between creating art as commissions and illustrations, versus teaching? Is it a 50/50, or is it more to one side than the other?
Shubhashree Sangameswaran:
Right now, I would say it is still 50/50, because the memberships that I launched and my teaching is still fairly new. Yeah. But over time, I want the teaching maybe to take slightly a higher percentage so that I am free to make my own art instead of commissioned work, work on my own collections, and have time to explore and play with different media, as well.
Miriam Schulman:
So I’m very interested to talk to you about your activism, Shub. So you’ve illustrated some books on sustainability, can you tell us about those books, please?
Shubhashree Sangameswaran:
Yes. And I love talking about these books because it began purely as a personal project. You are in New York, so you must have heard of The Sketchbook Project?
Miriam Schulman:
Yes.
Shubhashree Sangameswaran:
Yeah, so you buy these sketchbooks from thesketchbookproject.com, and then you fill them up, and then you send it back, and they become part of the Brooklyn Arts Library, right? So this was, I think, four years back, a friend of mine told me about this project, and I was excited. And we got the sketchbooks, and I was wondering, what am I going to fill it up with? And in the months before that, I had been reading up a lot about the whole Zero Waste Movement, and sustainability, in general, becoming more something that a lot more of us were concerned about. And for me, with the birth of my daughter, I think it sort of brought back the focus to sustainability when I started looking for an alternative to disposable diapers. Is this cool to talk about on your [inaudible] podcast?
Miriam Schulman:
Yes, absolutely. One of the things that I talk about, and I probably don’t talk about it enough, is how important, as artists, that we talk about our values.
Shubhashree Sangameswaran:
Yes. I love that.
Miriam Schulman:
Okay? And there was actually … I don’t want to derail the conversation away from your books, because we’re still on that topic. But there was some interesting research that came out recently that says that there’s three major types of consumers, and one of the major categories of consumers are activists who buy brands that they feel are in alignment with their values. So we can talk about that, but I really want to talk about your books first, so tell us more. You were talking about the diapers.
Shubhashree Sangameswaran:
Yes. So yeah, I started reading about alternatives to disposable diapers, and then I came across these cloth diapers, the modern cloth diapers, as they’re called. And then I started reading about sustainable menstruation, I switched to menstrual cup. Yeah, I’d been reading up a lot about it. And it also took me back to my childhood, where growing up in a middle class family in India, this is pretty much a way of life. We used to take a milk can, a can for milk, and then go to the milk booth, and then get fresh milk. There was minimal packaging. So this sparked something in me, and I thought, okay, I want to sort of do something about this. I want to draw about it, I want to write about it. And I thought, hey, my sketchbook project is here, and this feels like the perfect subject for it.
And I just wrote, and I drew, and I sent it out. I had the good sense to scan it all to keep a copy for myself before I sent it out. And then, I started sharing pages of it on my Instagram. And it was amazing, people just related to it so much. I think there was also the storytelling element to it, because I start off with how I grew up in Bangalore in the ’80s. A lot of people connected with it, and people started saying, where can I get a copy? And so, that’s when I thought of self-publishing it, so I did that. So it’s a small book, yeah, it’s not even [inaudible], it’s a little, pocket-sized sketchbook. And in that, I spoke about how things used to be, and then, how things are now, and what are some simple things that we can do every day in the kitchen, in the bathroom, in our offices? So yeah, so that was the first book, and I called it, Let’s Talk Trash.
Miriam Schulman:
Oh, I love that. That’s so clever. So it’s written in English?
Shubhashree Sangameswaran:
Thank you. Yes, it is, yeah. It’s in English, yeah. And then, I think six months later, I decided to follow that up with an activity book for kids along the same theme, because I hadn’t seen any around, and I thought that would be a good thing to follow it up with. And so, I did that, and that was also really well-received. A lot of parents who are conscious about their consumption and sustainability began to buy it as gifts for their kids, or return gifts for birthday parties, and things like that. So coming back to what I was saying about personal project, right? This was something purely I did to just fill up that sketchbook, send it off to the Brooklyn arts Arts Library, but then it just sparked off so much for me. And it was just fantastic, and it sort of reinstates the faith that I have in personal project and doing things for ourselves, right? Beyond work, beyond exhibitions, or beyond any commercial stuff. Yeah, I think there’s just so much to be said for personal projects. Big fan.
Miriam Schulman:
I love that. Okay, if we wanted to see your books or purchase your books, are they available on Amazon, Shub?
Shubhashree Sangameswaran:
The small books, which are self-published, are not available on Amazon, but I think I can work on making them available. Tell you what, they’re all available on my website, thehungrypalette.com/shop.
Miriam Schulman:
Okay, thehungrypalette.com/shop. We’ll make sure we link to that in the show notes. And just so you know, someone who is as technical as you, it’s not hard to put together a book for Amazon. I did it for my husband. He wanted to publish a poetry book, and we did put my illustrations in it. So Amazon has … I think they own this company called CreateSpace, so it allows you to create an on demand book for sale on Amazon, and they give you the ISBN number and everything. So it’s definitely something you can do.
Shubhashree Sangameswaran:
Okay. I’ve actually been thinking of putting everything up on Amazon, as well. I mean, I get these copies printed, and I finally have, yeah, all the paperwork and the licenses and everything ready, so I think I should be able to have it up on Amazon, also. Yeah. ISBN and everything, yeah.
Miriam Schulman:
Yeah. Okay, and now you have a new book coming out. Tell us about the newest book. So we’re recording this in April, just so our listeners understand there. I know they’re listening to this time travel. They’re listening to this in our future in July, but by then, the book you’re working on now will be out, so tell us about that book.
Shubhashree Sangameswaran:
Yes, and this is, yeah, another baby that I’m super excited about. This book is called, Slowing Down, and I call it an art journal for mindfulness. Again, this is one of those things that is born out of a personal project, which was the 100-Day Project. Anyway, the reason I wanted to make this journal is to provide a space for everyone, artists, non-artists, art enthusiasts, just to take some time out for themselves and make some art, reflect on their day, and yeah, just express themselves, right? So in the book, there is a little bit of an introduction to visual journaling and art journaling, and after that, each page has a prompt, which makes you think a little bit and observe what is going on around you, or what’s going on within you, and make some art based on that.
And the idea behind this book is for people to get into the habit of a creative practice, and making art a part of their every day, even if it’s not every day, at least once a week. And over time, I think it’s just fantastic to see how your body of work grows. And also, I think it’s wonderful to have a very unique records of your life when you make that art, and when you write a little bit about what’s going on in your day, over the years, to see a small stack of sketchbooks grow, a small stack of journals grow. It holds snippets of your life, it holds very mundane moments, but you look at it 10 years later, it’s just so special.
Miriam Schulman:
Yeah. So I’m moving from my home of 25 years in suburbia, and we are moving to the city, and we had to get rid of so many things. And my husband couldn’t understand why I was keeping all my journals. I was like, of course I am. I’m not making you give up your vinyl record collection, which he has quite a few. You are not making me give up art supplies. I mean, there’s things actually I did give up. I was like, okay, I really don’t need this anymore. There’s something I did want to ask you earlier, though, about sustainability. And as artists, we do create some byproducts with our art, and I wanted to hear what you had to say about that, in terms of your choice of medium, and how to minimize our carbon footprint as artists. Because I am aware of, some of the art that we do, it does create quite a bit of waste.
Shubhashree Sangameswaran:
Yeah. So I personally haven’t actually dabbled too much in either acrylics or in oil paints, because I’m, yeah, honestly not sure how much of a … I mean, I think it’s not the best thing to just wash down our drains, right?
Miriam Schulman:
Yeah.
Shubhashree Sangameswaran:
The other thing that I have been exploring, though, is, I have a couple of friends who make watercolor paints and inks from natural pigments. So that can be rocks, it can be plants, flowers, leaves. So that is something I’m interested in, and I would love to explore. And I do think at some point in the future, I would definitely like to switch to pigments that are completely sourced from nature, and yeah, to keep my footprint there as minimal as possible. In fact, can I just add, the books that I’m making now, the art journal, which is going to be out by the time the podcast is out, is made on a paper that is made from textile waste and not trees that have been cut down to make the book. So that is something I’m super thrilled about.
Miriam Schulman:
That is a beautiful thing. I know, one of the publishers … so my book is going to be traditionally published, which means it takes forever. But one of the publishers that I talked to, that I ended up not signing with, I think it’s New World Library, and I’ve had some guests on this podcast from that publisher, and they … so it’s a traditional publisher, and they are a green publisher that only publishes on …
Shubhashree Sangameswaran:
The FSSA [inaudible].
Miriam Schulman:
… yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, it’s very impressive that they have that value. So one thing we touched upon earlier, and Shub, you and I were talking about this before we hit record, is about engagement on social media. And what I wanted to share with you … and so, again, I’m recording this in April, and maybe before or around the time this podcast airs, I’ll have a more in depth episode about this. But I learned yesterday, some very fascinating research, and I already mentioned there’s the three major categories, the overwhelmed consumer, and that consumer is the one who would be most likely to buy art supplies and escape, and want to take an art journal class, by the way.
Then there’s the influence consumer and the activist consumer. And I don’t want to get too much into the weeds of these three things. But the one thing I wanted to share with you is, in this research that I was reading … and these are the three major ones, okay? They talked about, what were the social media platforms that each of these three categories are used? So top three for the overwhelmed, top three for the influence, and top three for the activist.
Shubhashree Sangameswaran:
Activist.
Miriam Schulman:
Okay, so the top three for the activist … and I don’t have all these memorized.
Shubhashree Sangameswaran:
Oh, yeah, I was just going to say that, how do you remember all of this?
Miriam Schulman:
Oh, no, I have a good memory, but it’s not that good. Okay, one thing I can share right off the bat is, Facebook didn’t make the top three for any of them.
Shubhashree Sangameswaran:
Oh, okay.
Miriam Schulman:
None. Facebook is like-
Shubhashree Sangameswaran:
Top three.
Miriam Schulman:
… None, for none of the categories. None of the categories, Facebook was not present on the top three.
Shubhashree Sangameswaran:
Wow. Okay.
Miriam Schulman:
TikTok made the top three for all of them.
Shubhashree Sangameswaran:
Wow. Are you on TikTok?
Miriam Schulman:
I am not yet.
Shubhashree Sangameswaran:
Me, neither. Okay.
Miriam Schulman:
I will be soon, but you will not see me dancing or lip syncing there.
Shubhashree Sangameswaran:
Maybe by the time this episode is out, who knows?
Miriam Schulman:
By the time this is out … I mean, I did create an account. So that’s something that I do, is like, if I have … my social media handle is #schulmanart. And if there’s something new, like Clubhouse, I’ll create the account just so nobody can take my handle there, even if I never plan on using it.
Shubhashree Sangameswaran:
That’s [inaudible].
Miriam Schulman:
Right. Yeah, TikTok was on all three. For the activist, I think Reddit was one of them, which makes sense, because activists like … I do remember this one, that the activist is Reddit, TikTok, and Snapchat.
Shubhashree Sangameswaran:
No Instagram?
Miriam Schulman:
No. No.
Shubhashree Sangameswaran:
No? Huh, okay. Wow.
Miriam Schulman:
No.
Shubhashree Sangameswaran:
Oh, interesting.
Miriam Schulman:
And then, I don’t remember the other two, which was which, but I know LinkedIn made the top three for one of them, and Instagram made the top three for one of them. And Twitch was on there, which, I don’t even know what that is. What is Twitch?
Shubhashree Sangameswaran:
It’s like Twitter and Snapchat had a baby?
Miriam Schulman:
Oh, you do know what Twitch is?
Shubhashree Sangameswaran:
No, I’m saying … I have no clue.
Miriam Schulman:
I have no clue, either. You won’t see me on Snapchat, or on … yeah. You won’t see me there. Anyway, so yeah, Facebook is no longer as relevant as it used to be, and a lot of that has to do with I think what happened in the US after the 2020 election. So people don’t want to be on Facebook anymore, and they don’t feel aligned with their values. So when we’re talking about value alignment … yeah.
Shubhashree Sangameswaran:
Yeah, makes sense. Yeah. Then again, Instagram is part of Facebook, so …
Miriam Schulman:
It is, so they still … they … yeah.
Shubhashree Sangameswaran:
And I rely … well, I used to rely on Instagram heavily, and now I’m seeing what’s happening with the engagement and all of that, and yeah, totally makes sense to diversify [inaudible] that email list. Yeah.
Miriam Schulman:
Yeah, well, I’m a big … one of the things I talk about a lot on this podcast is the email list. And it really is important, especially if you look at even the past five years, if you spent a lot of time building a Facebook page or building an Instagram page, it’s not relevant anymore, but that email list never dies.
Shubhashree Sangameswaran:
Yes. And what’s that they say, don’t build your product on [inaudible]?
Miriam Schulman:
That’s right, yeah.
Shubhashree Sangameswaran:
Yeah. makes so much sense. Yep.
Miriam Schulman:
All right, Shub, it was so fun talking to you today. So I want my listeners to check out your … did we talk about your circle? Tell us more about that, the circle that you have for people that … could you tell us more about that?
Shubhashree Sangameswaran:
It’s called The Slowing Down Circle, and as the name suggests, the idea is to get together online once a month, sometimes maybe twice. It’s a membership, get together once or twice a month, and just take some time out for ourselves, and work together on some prompts, and just reflect on what is going on around us, and have fun and make some art. Yeah, that’s about it.
Miriam Schulman:
Okay. And how can they find out about that? Where should they go?
Shubhashree Sangameswaran:
You can find out, yeah, more about that on www.slowing downcircle.com. Yes.
Miriam Schulman:
Okay, so we’ll make sure we have that URL, slowingdowncircle.com linked in the show notes, which is episode number 201, schulmanartcom/201. And we will also have the link for her books, thehungrypalette.com/book.
Shubhashree Sangameswaran:
Shop.
Miriam Schulman:
Oh, forward slash shop. Okay, so all those places will be linked in the show notes, as well as her Instagram, because she is still there. We’re not dancing on TikTok yet. Okay.
Shubhashree Sangameswaran:
Yet. Yet.
Miriam Schulman:
Right.
Shubhashree Sangameswaran:
Who knows, never say never.
Miriam Schulman:
I know, right? So you know my kids will be so humiliated.
Shubhashree Sangameswaran:
And so, the funny thing is … sorry to interrupt you, but yeah, this just reminded me. There was one time when I shared something on my Instagram feed, and then the post wasn’t getting too much engagement. And then I shared it on Stories, and I said, folks, if I don’t get too much of a response on this, I’ll have to start doing the thing that people do on [inaudible], and dancing to stuff. And then a lot of people suddenly started engaging. Okay, that works. That threat worked.
Miriam Schulman:
Yeah, well, when you ask people to write back to you, and they do, then the algorithm will say, oh, there’s engagement here, let’s show it to more people, and then it snowballs. So they want us to be social on the social media platforms. They don’t want us to do like, the hit and run. Okay, and don’t forget, if you want to slow down, make space for yourself, escape the doldrums, and discover the magic of painting watercolor portraits, head on over to schulmanart.com/demo. That’s D-E-M-O. Alrighty, Shub, do you have any last words for my listeners before we call this podcast complete?
Shubhashree Sangameswaran:
Yes, absolutely. Take that time out for yourself every day, if possible, and make some art. It needn’t go up on Instagram, it needn’t go up on TikTok. It can be just for yourself. But that’s the thing that made me who I am today, right? That’s the thing that led me to being an illustrator. And even if you’re already an artist, you already have an art practice on the side, just take that time out, do the thing you love, and just keep creating.
Miriam Schulman:
I love that. Thank you so much for taking the time to be with me here today.
Shubhashree Sangameswaran:
Thank you so much, Miriam, this is so much fun.
Miriam Schulman:
All right, my friend, thank you so much for being with me here today, as well. I will see you the same time, same place, next week. Stay inspired.
Speaker 2:
Thank you for listening to the Inspiration Place podcast. Connect with us on Facebook at facebook.com/schulmanart, on Instagram, @schulmanart, and of course, on schulmanart.com.
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