Abundance is Bright: Celebrating Goddess Lakshmi & Diwali
Through this Handmade Storybook, I share how I have learned about Lakshmi, the Hindu goddess of wealth and prosperity, through art and stories all around me.
And how so many others, who are part of Studio PAUSE, helped me tell the stories!
— Sushmita Mazumdar, artist
When I was invited to create a bookmaking activity for Asia After Dark: Diwali Festival at the National Museum of Asia Art, an after-hours event on Nov 1, 2024 where the museum is lit up in celebration of light overcoming darkness, I remembered an image of the Hindu god Vishnu, in the collections of the same museum. He stands in the middle, with the goddess Lakshmi on his right, and the goddess Saraswati on his left. It reminded me that I had created a book celebrating Saraswati back in 2009, titled “Rest is Sweet,” as I was teaching myself to be a book artist (photos, right). Putting the book inside a typical box of sweets offered to the goddess, I wanted to share stories with my American children about how I remembered and shared stories about our Indian heritage, members of our extended family, and how celebrations evolve as I live outside my home country and they grow up American.
Now, in 2024, I would create one about Lakshmi!
What would it be?
As I pulled out all my Diwali stuff, put away in a cabinet to be used on one moonless night in the year, I found many items which reminded me of the stories I wanted to share. As I worked with my artist friend LouLou, who would make a video for the project, I explained things to her about the goddess and how she brings us abundance.
And so I created a Handmade Storybook titled “Abundance is Bright: Celebrating Goddess Lakshmi & Diwali.” Through this book I share how I have learned about Lakshmi, the Hindu goddess of wealth and prosperity, through art and stories all around me. And how so many others who are part of Studio PAUSE, helped me tell the stories too! And how they understand the things the goddess symbolizes.
Lakshmi is worshipped every day, especially during Diwali, and people light lamps so she can see their homes on this moonless night and shower them with blessings. In the bookmaking workshop I created, visitors learn about the many stories about the goddess and how she is depicted in many ways in art and sculpture by picking the stories or art that catch their fancy, creating their own version of the book. The book itself, just like the older book Rest is Sweet, is itself inspired by the traditional Indian palm-leaf manuscript. Before paper came to India books were written on palm leaves. Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain texts used this format and after paper, they continued to make this thin and long books of stacked pages.
Stories:
The community is part of my social practice as an artist. Many who are part of my life and my Studio inform my work, discuss, and collaborate, and in this book I include the art and stories they shared with me. They will attend the event if possible, to see how sharing their art and stories with others is so inspiring. I am so thankful for their questions, their guidance, and their immense talents. Check out the video here:
Sarita Regmi and her friends Usha and Deelasha created a rangoli at the Studio to celebrate Diwali 2023. The friends are all from Nepal and had fun creating this impromptu design on the floor using colorful sand while the rest of us watched. We learned that Diwali, or Deepavali, is also celebrated in Nepal.
LouLou Marino took many of the photos of objects that tell the stories of Diwali. She is working on a video about the project as well. Having lived in Asia, she remembered how many incense sticks she had seen when she visited temples there. So I included her photo and story.
Amar Shekdar was visiting from New Zealand. He used to paint a lot when he worked as an art teacher and when we chatted over FaceTime he would show me his paintings. But he hadn’t painted in a while. It was fun to see him get excited about the book so I asked him to make the main artwork for it. He is working on it in his home in Wellington!
Tanya Gupta came to the US nine years ago and has missed celebrating her Bengali Indian culture. When I asked her to help me make the alpona, a Bengali decorative design done on the floor with a mixture of rice flour and water, she was very excited! That day her family called her and when she told them about the project, they remembered many old celebration stories and her mom shared a design. Turns out, her mom’s name is Alpana (same word, differently spelled.)
Photos below from top left to lower right: Sarita and her friends with the rangoli they made at the Columbia Pike Studio in 2023; LouLou photographs in the Buckingham Studio; Amar studies my new book, Shakti, looking at various ways Lakshmi is depicted in Indian art; Tanya makes the alpona outside the Columbia Pike studio.
Photos: Below are photos of some stories which are featured in the book.
A gateway in Udaipur, India, with auspicious motifs, including a woman with the purnaghata, a full vessel, including water and vegetation like mango leaves and a coconut. The full vessel is a symbol of Lakshmi as she is also the source of all life.
Siddhapratima Yantra, or Shrine to the Perfected Being, is a small object from the Jain tradition in the collection of the National Museum of Asian Art. Here we see Lakshmi on the top, flanked by elephants.
Diyas or clay lamps on the window in my Studio. Here I use wax tealights because these ordinary and inexpensive clay diyas, traditionally filled with oil and a wick, would get ruined and then where would I get more? I would have to visit India during Diwali to get more!
Close-up of Lakshmi from a sculpture I call the Mumbai Triad, where Ganesha, the elephant-headed god is in the center, Lakshmi is on his left, and Saraswati is on his right. My mother gave me this when I opened my studio.
Diwali stuff I pulled out from my cabinet one day as I started to imagine what stories and art I would share in my book. It got the juices flowing and me explaining things to LouLou as she filmed in that gorgeous fall afternoon sunlight.
Artist Tanya Gupta makes an alpona, a traditional design from the Bengali culture of India, using powdered rice flour and water. The design, done at the threshold, includes a simple depiction of the feet of goddess Lakshmi, welcoming her to enter the home or place of business.