About

Creative dabbler & spiritual seeker

I am a weaver.

Of threads the world told me shouldn't belong together.

Ancient Egypt and engineering school. Metalsmithing and board meetings. Cacao ceremony and corporate strategy. The girl who wanted to go to art school and the woman who became a VP at BlackRock. The body that survived leukemia, then MS, then burnout — and kept returning to the porch at dawn to sing to the wind chimes anyway.

The child who drew volcano diagrams

Before the molds were handed to me, I was captivated by everything.

I didn't know then what I know now: that the dabbler who follows fascination from one subject to the next isn't scattered; she's seeking. Exploring the mystery of self and world through every medium available. Geology. Watercolor. Cacao. Sound. Poetry. Metal. Tea.

I am still that child.

Two streams, one river

For over two decades, I built global programs and led with empathy at IBM, BlackRock, and creative agencies across industries. I was recognized as the Heart of BlackRock.

The corporate world taught me to hold complexity, build containers, and translate invisible things into forms others could understand. I brought all of it into the sacred space I now hold.

In 2024, an eight-month medical leave became an initiation, a forced return to the self I had been setting aside for decades. What felt like collapse was actually a blooming.

What I offer

I hold sacred space for people ready to stop performing their lives and start inhabiting them.

My gatherings weave together blue lotus tea ceremony, guided visualization, somatic creative expression, oracle card inquiry, and the sounds of handpan, kalimba, and Koshi chimes. No art experience needed. No spiritual credentials required. Just the willingness to arrive as you are.

I serve creative seekers, the spiritually curious, and the quietly exhausted — those navigating burnout, chronic illness, major transitions, and the particular loneliness of having lived too long by someone else's rules. I know that loneliness. I lived it for decades.

I am still in the corporate world. Still in both worlds. I tell you this not as a disclaimer but as an invitation: you do not have to have it all figured out to begin.

The weaver works with the threads available. Even the tangled ones. Especially those.

My purpose

To awaken wonder so that we can connect with the mystery and possibility of who we truly are.

More about me!

  • Suman Patnaik is a creative healing practitioner, ceremonial space holder, and lifelong seeker based in Maplewood, New Jersey. Through her practice Craft & Calling, she guides people inward through intuitive art, ritual, sacred ceremony, and somatic creative expression — awakening wonder and helping others reconnect with the mystery and possibility of who they truly are.

  • Suman is a childhood leukemia survivor, a woman living with Multiple Sclerosis, and someone who recovered from clinically diagnosed burnout after an 8-month medical leave in 2024. She is also a first-generation Indian American who spent decades fitting prescribed molds — engineering over art school, corporate over creativity — while quietly keeping her creative spirit alive through metalsmithing, painting, ceremony, herbalism, and an unrelenting curiosity about the world. Her work emerges directly from this journey of reclaiming wonder and returning to her true self.

  • Suman's practice weaves together intuitive and somatic art-making, teas from soothing plant allies, guided visualization, oracle and tarot card inquiry, sound healing with handpan, kalimba, and Koshi chimes, metalsmithing, and a deep reverence for the natural world, ancient wisdom traditions, and the body's innate intelligence.

  • Craft & Calling is Suman's healing practice rooted in the belief that creativity is a portal to the soul. It offers intimate gatherings, ceremonies, and creative rituals that blend blue lotus tea, guided visualization, intuitive art-making, oracle cards, sound healing, and sacred space-holding. Every offering is designed to help people slow down, drop into embodied presence, and access their own inner wisdom.

  • Suman works with creative seekers, spiritual explorers, and people navigating major life transitions — including burnout, chronic illness, career crossroads, grief, and the quiet exhaustion of having lived too long by someone else's rules. She has a particular affinity for those who feel the pull toward something more alive but don't yet have language for it.

  • Not at all. In fact, most people who attend say "I'm not an artist" when they arrive — and leave with a meaningful series of channeled insights expressed through color, line, and form. The creative process at Craft & Calling is not about skill or output. It is about using creative expression as a doorway to your own inner knowing.

  • Suman's primary gathering space is Shakti Yoga & Living Arts in Maplewood, New Jersey, hosted by studio owner Anna Winkler. Suman is available for collaborations at other studios, retreat centers, and sacred spaces in the New York and New Jersey area and beyond.