Storybook Artist
Arlington, VA
Sushmita Mazumdar of Arlington works across stories, book arts, and mixed media to explore her memories of home, heritage, and migration from India. She mixes present-day places which inspire her work, including community members who collaborate, discuss, and respond to inform her creations. After a fifteen-year career in the advertising industry, Mazumdar taught herself to be a writer, writing stories about her childhood to show her American children how different yet wonderful each of our lives can be. As she puts it, “We think we have so much to teach others. But others, including our children, come into our lives with so much to teach us!” A self-taught book artist, Mazumdar made the stories into unique, handmade books and in 2007 launched Handmade Storybooks, encouraging intergenerational story-sharing through fun and simple bookmaking. In 2010, she participated in the Smithsonian Folklife Festival’s Asian Pacific American program “Local Lives Global Ties”. In 2013 she opened Studio Pause, a community space for art and stories, in the Gates of Ballston housing community in Arlington. During COVID-19, she worked collaboratively to produce We PAUSED! A Handmade Book by Studio PAUSE for Gates of Ballston, a collective community response to the first year of the pandemic. We PAUSED! Unbound, a year-long exhibit created as a follow-up to the book project, is on view at Arlington Arts. Mazumdar will be leading an interactive activity in the Virginia Folklife Area Saturday and Sunday.