Shoemona is Sumana Ghosh-Witherspoon, an artist and surface designer based in New Jersey, USA. Her practice covers pattern design for fabrics, as well as fine art prints and original mixed media pieces.
Having dreamt of being an artist from a young age, Sumana was led down the path of Graphic Design “because it seemed like a good way to be creative in a monetarily viable field”. She attended Pratt Institute for a graduate degree in Communication Design and after working as a graphic designer and art director in the publishing industry for several years, she moved to the suburbs and rediscovered her passion for fine art and surface design.
Initially, Sumana experimented with rubber stamp-making and printing as a way to add texture to her work. However, she soon started to enjoy the process of carving and printing so much, that this became the focus of her practice. Based on her passion for Indian folk art, she gravitated towards making patterns. At first, these were not in repeat format, and Sumana enjoyed a process of loose exploration. This process involved the creation of an image, from which Sumana would make a stamp and then incorporate some colour either physically with watercolour or Posca pens, or digitally with Photoshop. Photoshop is a vital part of Sumana’s process, as she tells us; “’l often print something in black, photograph it and bring it into Photoshop, clean it up, change the colour, add colour to the background, repeat the image and make a pattern.” Most recently, she has been using the stamping method to create decorative elements in her work, mixing Posca pens and collage elements. “I am definitely not a purist when it comes to printmaking; I simply love the textural effect I get and enjoy mixing media with it,” says the artist.
Sumana’s adolescence spent in India has had a great impact on both her and her artistic practice. It was here that she fell in love with the colours, textures, and folk art of the country. She comments; “India has a strong history of block-printed fabrics and I always enjoyed creating clothing with them (with the help of a tailor, I can’t sew, unfortunately!)”. She continues; “Moving from suburban Pennsylvania as a child to the chaos of Kolkata opened my eyes to a whole new way of seeing. The mundane became very interesting to me. Old doors and walls, once painted bright teals and pinks, were chipping away to reveal fascinating textures with so many stories waiting to be told in each layer. Years later I moved to New York city and the chaos and grit seemed familiar and inspiring to me as well.”
Looking to the future, Sumana hopes to be able to continue her art practice and grow her brand by licensing more of her work for fabric and other products. She is looking forward to expanding her offering and start conducting workshops where she can share her love for block printing.
(Photos by Lisa Guillard and Zoe Zela)
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