So what does an artist do?
I was 15 when I decided to study Applied Art. I attended art school for five years and for the next 15 years I worked in the advertising industry in Mumbai, India, and Washington DC, USA. Here, I also trained to be a docent at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art in Washington D.C., sharing the art and stories from Asian cultures with hundreds of visitors.
Some 13 years ago, I taught myself to be a writer and a book artist, and launched my first project Handmade Storybooks in 2007. I taught myself how to be an educator too. I re-learned painting and re-discovered calligraphy. I had a solo show. Then I opened a community space where I could do all this with everyday people encouraging them to make time to share their art and stories while learning what kinds of spaces we need in the community where all are comfortable.
Years later I was on a panel reviewing applications for teaching artists. “This person doesn’t even have a professional website,” one of the panelists said. I panicked. I didn’t have a website with my name on it. When the pandemic hit my community space was empty. Funny how it has taken me almost a year to make a website about my work, but it’s also awesome that here it finally is! Read the full story on my blog post, A Website With My Name?
Photo: Kanyadaan, Again, 2023, by Sushmita Mazumdar, mixed media on canvas.
Read the story of this artwork here!
Who decides which stories should be read?
Where are the spaces in the community where we can all be everything we would like to be?
I don’t know what you will see in my work.
But I know it will be different from what I see. Or feel.
When we hear stories we are changed. When we tell our stories, our community changes.
