KOCHI: Pursuing her bachelor’s in fine arts in Chennai in the mid 1990s, 44-year-old Sushma Anand wanted to work with glass as a practising artist after her graduation. Fascinated with three-dimensional shapes or figures rather than two-dimensional paintings, Sushma was sure of the path she had to take.
However, there was one crucial hurdle. Back then, there was practically no institute in India offering a course in moulding glass. Sushma then turned to her second calling -- pottery. The unanticipated choice would inform the course of her career. Over the next two decades, Sushma sculpted herself into a master ceramic artist helming her design studio, Artmosphere, near Chottanikkara in Kochi.
“I have always enjoyed working with my hands. Though pottery was not my first choice, the medium drew me in. I have been working with clay since 1997. I came to Kochi after I got married in 2005. Even though I was involved with pottery for five years after that, I set up my studio in 2010, it was rebranded to Artmosphere in 2014,” says Sushma, a native of Andhra Pradesh.
Although Sushma’s works encompass a broad spectrum of techniques, designs and styles, her singular and perhaps the most unique contribution to the craft is the method she employs of printing on clay. Intrigued by printmaking during college, Sushma sought to combine it with her current practice and developed a technique to transfer prints on to a newly configured pot. Perhaps the first artist in the country to come up with a successful method, Sushma remains one among the very few ceramic artists to focus on the same.
“In BFA, we learnt to work with a range of genres and medium and printing was one thing which got me excited. When I learnt pottery, I wanted to combine the two. Printing techniques were already being practised abroad but none of the materials was available in India. Also, the exact process was unknown because we didn’t have video tutorials back then.
So I started experimenting and researching what would work. Finally, I came up with a process which could be done with materials available locally. It was almost a necessity to come up with my style,” says Sushma who has since then taught the technique at multiple workshops, including to students of National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad.
Apart from being an instructor, Sushma has worked with some of the most recognised boutique brands in the hospitality sector which forms the mainstay of her business. Hoping to start a website soon, Sushma hopes to sell some of her independent works online. Entering the retail space is also in the pipeline.
Find her creations on Instagram @_artmosphere