31/07/2026
I guess this year, we tried to do our best.
This is how I feel, after closing the studio for the summer.
This year, we both did what we could, with what we had, under sometimes unusual circumstances.
2025-2026 might not be remembered as the best season. It was full of new challenges and I am forever grateful that this magic place located Mansteinstrasse 16 is shared with my beautiful colleague Alice im Wolleland 🇫🇷🐑🇩🇪🧶🇪🇺, whose laugh coming from the back room often made my day. A place that regularly welcomes crowds of people, all ages, levels, backgrounds, wishes and stories.
If I could change some parts of these past 10-11 months, this time I would. Tho everything that happens along the way leads to now. And now, despite all these things I would change, I manage to feel some luck and gratefulness.
This year, I met many new people, and some impacted me forever. I designed events I was not happy with, I bought a coat rack for the front room, painted a wall in blue and wondered why I did it so late.
I saw students master drawings I might not be able to do myself and I got nominated for a prestigious price as an “entrepreneuse with migration background” (wondered what this definition really means) and lost.
I discovered oil painting, opening the doors to a new and very unique world, into which I already take refuge quite often.
I developed projects that I had to cancelled and learned from it too.
Later, I embraced the importance of respecting -mine and other’s- boundaries and (in a world polluted by AI) enjoying process and learning from it, more than the result.
I painted a bench with my trainee in a schoolyard, drank lots of matcha latte and exactly when I needed it, received waves of incredible support I will never forget.
The studio witnessed lots of laughs too, lots of moments of togetherness. I know students, just like us, sometimes came sad, overwhelmed, tired or angry but if they were able to find some comfort or at list a little break, that means a world to me.
2026-2027, I am curious. I feel like I am gonna like you. You’ll be different for sure and that’s perfect.
Let’s see what we can create together and in the meantime, let’s enjoy the summer ☀️
