ABOUT

Sushmita is a self-taught writer and book artist. She wanted to write stories from her childhood and share them with her American children. She wanted them to see how “wonderfully different” lives can be!

Kathy, a published author and friend who is also Taiwanese-American said, “If you want to learn how to write for American audiences, you must join a writer’s group and get feedback.” And so I looked for one. A new one was having its first meeting the next day! In a few months, I became assistant organizer and we decided to meet weekly instead of monthly. We realized we needed each other. We workshopped and we critiqued. It was amazing.

She knew nobody was going to publish stories written for 2 children so she then taught herself to be a book artist. Combining her skills in graphic design with the newfound book arts she could make fun and unique storybooks by hand.

I called my books Handmade Storybooks. They were always made by hand and they always held a story—a real-life story. You could always see how I had created the book and make your own. There is a power in things we make with our own hands and many of us have forgotten that. Textures, 3D structures, sewing, papers, engineering… they each excite different parts of our brain!

She soon found that encouraging everyone to share their stories of home, heritage, and migration through book arts, gave everyday people a fun and simple way to express themselves.

I had to learn how to share these books with others as I had never done that before. I learned about Empowered Women International (EWI) and went to meet their founder Marga Fripp. There I trained to be an entrepreneur, to learn how to start my own business, and do this thing that I really believed in.

Trained as a museum docent, she knew the power of objects. The books she taught people to create were objects that could be easily shared.

People always tell me, “Oh I’m not a writer!” or “I can’t even draw stick figures!” and that’s when I ask them, “But you can fold paper, right?” Immediately their guard is down, all walls broken.

“Yeah. I can fold paper. Who can’t?” And then we begin learning how to make a book. If the book looks like a house which story will you put in it?

Then a stranger invited her to learn painting.

I bumped into a woman and she said she had volunteered in a class i had taught. She introduced me to her painting teacher and everything changed! As I re-learned painting my calligraphy emerged. Writing the beautiful scripts of my native languages was a wonderful thing and watching how others who didn’t read it react to it was beautiful as well. That stranger, Cecilia Kalish, became a dear friend and mentor. When I had a bunch of paintings I entered them in shows. People seemed to like them!

And she was applied for and got a solo show. It was 2012.

For my first solo show, Let’s Tell Our Tales! - Everyday Stories as Artist’s Books and Collages by Sushmita Mazumdar, at the Popcorn Gallery at Glen Echo Park , MD in Oct 2012, I had invited the board of EWI to visit the exhibit. After giving them a tour I took them to a classroom for chai and snacks and conversation. There, Marga pulled out a little notebook and asked, “So what’s next Sush?”

“What’s next? I’ve just created all this art for my first solo show! I’m exhausted,” I complained.

“Yes, I understand. And it’s really amazing work, Sush. But what did you find on doing all this?” Marga has a beautiful way of gently telling you how you can be more.

“Well, people said they want to do all this with me. So I told them to get on my mailing list and when I do the next workshop somewhere I’ll send out an email and they can come.”

“But when will that be? Or where?” she continued.

I had no idea. “Maybe someday I can have a space of my own where they can come…”

And that’s when Marga knew exactly what I should do. She invited me to be EWI’s first alum to apply for a Kiva Zip microloan and start my own brick and mortar space. One afternoon, sipping chai at home with friend Brian we had been talking about the hectic lifestyle people found themselves trapped in.

“If you ever open that studio, you should encourage people to pause. Like we are doing now,” Brian said.

“Actually, I’ll name it Studio Pause, Brian!” I said.

She opened Studio Pause, a space where she did her work—wrote stories and poetry, made art, designed and printed Handmade Storybooks—and invited the community to make time to explore creativity and celebrate community.

I held Writing PAUSE where we explore how to make writing a creative practice; had Art PAUSE where groups and families can play with materials in the Studio and make art; and had receptions for anybody who wanted to share their art or stories. I watched as people told me how it changed them. I knew it would. It had changed me! It was my project where I explored what kind of spaces needed to be created in communities so people could explore being who they wanted to be.

Then another stranger invited me to move my Studio to a new place. An affordable housing community.

When Jennifer Endo invited me to AHC Inc’s Gates of Ballston community my work changed. I found myself inspired by the new communities I found. Mixing their voices into my own work, allowing cross-cultural collaborations and dialogues to inform my creations, changed me, changed my understanding of the community, and changed the community I lived in. New people started to see my work, collaborate with me, and ask for my views. My voice and those of others were reaching more people now. It was amazing.

As for this website, usually we tell artists to start with a website, to have a platform, to look professional. But here I am, making my artist’s website after at least 13 years of being an artist. That in itself is the long story of an artist.