About me
Hi, I’m Umayal — a multidisciplinary artist, dream activist, and creator of Soul Harmony arts. I’m also a mother, a woman of South Indian roots, and a catalyst for Compassionate culture. But I wasn’t always this connected to my purpose.
I was born and raised in India, where I studied architecture and learned to design structures with precision and intention. But I also internalized the weight of expectations—cultural, societal, and familial. I became a people pleaser, constantly trying to prove myself, striving to fit into a version of success that didn’t feel true to me. I didn’t know how to ask for help, how to say no, or how to honor my own needs. That exhaustion, over time, led me to depression.
When I moved to the U.S., I found myself in a new land, isolated in motherhood, far from family and familiar roots. The transition was overwhelming. I lost myself in the roles I was expected to play—wife, mother, daughter, caretaker. I forgot who I was.
That’s when art found me—or maybe, I finally opened to it.
Soul Harmony Art was born from my own journey of remembering who I am.
As a South Indian woman, I grew up surrounded by rhythm, color, ritual, and the quiet wisdom of everyday art. The patterns of kolam drawn at the threshold of our home were my first language of belonging a sacred geometry of welcome, protection, and prayer. But as I moved through life, migrated across continents, became a mother, and navigated trauma, identity, and loss, those patterns grew quiet inside me. I forgot their meaning until I needed them again.
My art started as raw expression abstract forms, bold movement, and emotional color. It was how I survived, how I processed what my body remembered even when my mind tried to forget. Over time, my practice led me back to tradition, to kolam, to ancestral gesture, to the body’s way of knowing. Now, I weave the old and the new together — ancestral memory with contemporary feeling, discipline with intuition, structure with flow.
Soul Harmony Art is where:
- boundaries become bridges,
- grief becomes remembrance,
- pain becomes alchemy,
- and joy becomes rebellion.
My work explores how we relate to ourselves and to one another. Because harmony does not mean perfection it means every part of us has a place to breathe. I believe that when we learn to listen to our own emotional landscape, we return to our truth. Boundaries rooted in love become portals to connection. Joy becomes a sovereign act. Belonging becomes embodied rather than borrowed.
What drives my art is curiosity, play, and the devotion to becoming whole again. I explore different mediums, textures, gestures, and ways of telling a story. Change is constant and movement, paradoxically, is how I find stillness.
Soul Harmony Art is my offering:
A remembering.
A return.
A space where ancient wisdom and modern experience meet.
A place where every version of you is welcome.
From Disconnection to Communion Through Expression
I was born and raised in India, where creativity, community, and cultural expression were a natural part of everyday life. I studied architecture—drawn to the beauty of space, structure, and design. But even in those early years, I felt the weight of expectations. I tried hard to be the “good girl”—to meet societal standards, fulfill roles, and please everyone around me. That pressure followed me when I moved to the United States.
Coming to a new country as a young mother, I faced a profound sense of disconnection. I had left behind my homeland, family, and support system. Surrounded by unfamiliar norms and expectations, I found myself silently struggling. The cultural isolation, the constant giving without receiving, and the need to “hold it all together” as a wife and mom took a toll on my wellbeing.
There was a time when I lost my voice — when nurturing everyone else meant abandoning myself.
In 2020, my world shifted.
When my father passed away, something inside me broke open. Grief didn’t arrive softly it tore through everything I thought I understood about life, identity, and belonging. The loss stirred memories of much older wounds the ones I had learned to bury.
Childhood trauma. Emotional neglect. The quiet training to be strong, to not need, to stay composed, to swallow my voice.
Over time, I forgot how to name my own needs. I learned to outrun myself.
And eventually, my body could not hold it anymore.
I fell into depression not because I was weak, but because my spirit was done being held in silence. PTSD became an uninvited teacher, forcing me to slow down, to listen, to feel. And in those tender, disorienting moments where language failed me art found me.
Art became the place I could breathe.
Color became my voice when words felt too heavy.
Movement became my medicine.
Drawing became a doorway back into my body.
Through art, I began to witness myself again — layer by layer.
The child who once hid.
The woman learning to rise.
The many selves in between.
My portraits are not about perfection — they are about presence.
They reveal the inner worlds we often don’t speak about — the tenderness, the fire, the longing, the grief, the quiet power. The Kolam patterns woven into my work are a remembrance of my lineage — the Tamil women before me who prayed, created, and healed through the everyday sacred.
Today, I work as a Dream Activist and Catalyst for Compassionate Culture, weaving together art, storytelling, embodiment, and ancestral wisdom. I create spaces—through workshops, exhibits, and community projects—where people can reconnect with their own truth, creativity, and power.
My mission is to challenge the narratives of scarcity, separation, and perfectionism by reimagining abundance as a state of reciprocity, harmony, and trust in life’s natural flow. I believe we are not separate from nature, from one another, or from the creative force that moves through us. And when we shift our perception, we unlock the flow of true abundance—rooted in generosity, wholeness, and connection.
This is the heart of my journey: not just becoming an artist, but unwinding and unraveling my authentic self. Fully. Freely. Flowing in my own rhythm—and inviting others to do the same.
My Inner Revolution
I grew up in a culture where a woman’s worth was measured by how much she could sacrifice—her voice, her dreams, even her joy. I was taught that to be good meant to give everything and expect nothing in return. That following many passions was indulgent. That my value came from roles I played, not the soul I carried.
But something within me refused to stay small.
Through art, emotions, and the radical act of feeling, I began to unravel the stories that kept me stuck. I discovered that emotions are not a burden—they are a map. They reveal what’s been buried and where we are being called to rise.
Healing is not about fixing ourselves.
It’s about remembering who we are.
This is the threshold I crossed—the moment I chose to become.
And now, I invite you to journey with me.
Ready to begin your journey?
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