WRITER
I taught myself how to make my voice visible. Then I could teach others.
When I taught myself to be a writer I found that it wasn’t just about wanting to write. It was about what I wanted to tell, who I wanted to tell it to, and why. Once I could convince myself that telling my stories was important enough then I could convince others to do that too. I soon found that encouraging people to share their stories of home, heritage, and migration gave everyday people a way to express themselves. And a way for me to connect with them all.
“It’s not about how great our writing is but to encourage people to let our words emerge, just for our own selves. Not for anyone else. And then to revel in the joy of it all! “ ~ Sushmita
Photo, left: Sushmita participates in the 2010 Smithsonian Folklife Festival program, Local Lives Global Ties sharing her story and teaching the public to make their own stories into handmade books. In her hand she holds her 2009 book Lelemenope - A Collection of Mis-spoken First Words.
“Future Alexandria Legend”
A collaboration between a photojournalist and a book artist leads to a summer project in two Alexandria, VA schools and 240 students.
Kanyadaan, Again
My mixed media artwork with a poem, Kanyadaan, Again, 2023
(Poem, 2021), has been accepted into the show Asia North, in Baltimore, Maryland. It opens May 3.
I wrote Kanyadaan, Again on the extremely emotional day before my US citizenship interview. I came to the US to marry my sweetheart, who is American. It took me years to apply for citizenship because India insists you surrender your Indian citizenship to get your American one, and so it was a really hard decision. For the 2023 exhibit “Me, Here:” Stories of People & Place as told by the Studio PAUSE community, PAUSErs insisted I create an artwork and enter it. here is the story.
The Story of City of Stories
Remembering the story of my project City of Stories, I find it was all about learning ways to tell our stories, so we can encourage other to share theirs, and they can teach others to share theirs…
Follow Your Colors
Since I started to paint in acrylics in 2012, I have been keeping an eye out for how my heritage and culture show up in my art, from scripts and language, to color and mythology.
Writer? Reader?
Celebrating “Written in Arlington” at Lubber Run Amphitheatre, Sept. 23, 2021.
Poetry, April, and Me
Come along for a stroll down story lane, bumping into some greats, some unknowns, some languages, some inspirations, and of course, some poems. Because it is April its time to ask Who is a poet? Who can write poetry? What can help us write? What inspires?
The Silent Grey Bird
When you realize that everything around you is telling you something, and a poem emerges. And I let it. Because we are all poets.
From One to Many
My artworks come with stories. Here is and artwork from 2012 and how it was transformed in 2018.
Acceptance!
On Tuesday May 5, 2020, I opened up the Doodle link to pick a word to make into art for the Words to Art 2020 project. There were so many this time! I scrolled and saw what the other artists had picked: Broken, Longing… I scrolled up and down, undecided, when suddenly, Acceptance stared back at me!
A Website with My Name?
I blame it on the pandemic, on a Teaching Artists Roster panel I was on, and on the great C. G. Jung!