A journal of
people & places

Drawing is the best way to say what you want to say without all the “blah blah blah” – says Parisian polymorph artist Vava Dudu, who merges fashion with drawing, painting, and music.

To rethink what is happening, why is it happening in the 21st century, how this became the new normal. That’s how I see the role of an artist.

I started designing jewellery out of loneliness, to start a dialogue and to help other people feel less alone – says Alighieri founder Rosh Mahtani, who talks with us about her wax sculptures, living in London, and finding light in the dark.

I believe that everything happens for a reason and that I’ll always find my way.

Buying a work of art is such an intimate transaction, it requires one-on-one contact between the piece and the viewer. You can’t convey those emotions through the internet – says Gunia Nowik, the founder of a new contemporary art space in Warsaw, the Gunia Nowik Gallery.

I appreciate the trends, I don’t think it’s anything bad to dress trendy, but it has never been my thing. I’m more about finding what works for me.

The best advice is to keep your eyes open, don’t judge or avoid looking at things that may not be totally connected to your personal style, because this is how you can refine your eye.

You have to have your own identity, you’ll never succeed if you copy other people.

Fashion should be a reprieve.

People are attracted to interior design in the same way they are attracted to art — it’s very emotional.

To be be amazing at storytelling you need to see past trends, past what people are doing right now.

It’s really not cool, especially now, to be expensively dressed.

My advice for anyone who wants a career in fashion is to start at the very bottom, because that’s how you learn things.

Mistakes are vital to art.

The quiet lets me hear my own thoughts.

Books are a reliable antidote to stress related to the overwhelming situation around us.

I dream that one day we’ll be able to outfit a house solely with Polish brands.

Sometimes I manage to convince a children’s book publisher to make the mayor of a town a woman instead of a man, or to have a boy pretending to cook instead of pretending to race cars.

In New York you always feel like everyone is doing something cooler than you.

The Polish town of Zakopane in the beginning of the 20th century was a place where you could suspend the norms that ruled the rest of the land.