Mili employs her journalism and Psychology background to paint emotionally intelligent and restorative art showcasing Hindu deities in contemporary American settings. Drawing from the stories of the Devi Bhagwat Puran, the Ramayan, and the beloved visual vernacular of Amar Chitra Kathas, her explorations of sacred texts and illustrated mythologies boost a radical intimacy with deities.

Mili’s pioneering reportage and humanized narratives for The Indian Express helped open alcohol and drug treatment centers. She also reported for National Public Radio and spent fifteen years leading multi-billion dollar projects in corporate communications and change management, gathering insights into human nature and thoughtfully analyzing them to make art that celebrates everyday people and showcases moments when divine grace arrives quietly.

Her mother, a scholar of Sanskrit, with whom she spent countless days in art museums around the world, and her grandmother, who read her Hindu scriptures with heartwarming faith and innocence, inspired her to join sentences with paint in emotionally intelligent ways so they could hold a person still long enough to feel something real. When her father struggled with alcohol, the tremendous power of affirmations transformed her healing journey and she adds affirmations to each painting so it becomes a spiritual anchor, elevating it from mere decoration.    

Other influences include growing up in a home designed by Corbusier in Chandigarh, India, who showed her space, light and form, thoughtfully held, can lift the human spirit. Ancient Roman ruins visited in childhood highlighted the ephemeral nature of human attachments, so she often explores the theme of forgiveness and detachment in her work. She has also derived much inspiration from The Devi Bhagwat Puran, Shri Adi Shankarachrya’s Saundarya Lahiri, Kabir, The New Yorker, Joan Didion, Georgia O’Keefe, Alice Munro, Chekhov, Tolstoy, R.K. Narayan and Van Gogh, who gazed tenderly at the quiet dignity of everyday people and made it immortal. Each of these influences has helped her become a more compassionate writer and painter.

Mili is passionate about empowering people to successfully navigate personal and professional change. Guided by swaant sukhaya — Tulsidas ji’s devotion to Shri Rama and inner peace — her work reminds viewers with quiet certainty that abundance, resilience and divine grace are always near, always keep the faith.