Björn Heyn does not describe his studio as a workplace. He calls it a playground. For him, that distinction matters. Being an artist, he explains, means holding on to a particular state of mind that can easily disappear in adulthood. Bills arrive, emails pile up, the mailbox fills with responsibilities that feel far removed from […]
Ranny Macdonald describes painting as a threshold experience, a place where something begins to take over. “I get a sort of rush from it,” he says, “to be on that threshold… it feels like something else is kind of taking over, you know what needs to be done and you’re listening.” In those moments, the
In the studio, drawing and painting are the moments when Henry Ward feels most fully himself, even as he admits that the act of making art can feel heavy and unavoidable. He describes it as a compulsion that remains inseparable from how he understands himself and the world. If he could choose not to make
Terry Szpieg grew up in Muskegon, Michigan, and from as far back as he can remember, drawing was simply something he did. It required no special materials and no permission, only curiosity and a pencil. When he visits his parents today, his mother sometimes pulls out his old sketchbooks from elementary school, filled with birds,
Sébastien Jupille’s story begins simply. As a kid he drew constantly, not because anyone pushed him toward art but because it was the activity he returned to on his own. When adults asked him what he wanted to do later in life, he said he wanted to draw. Even then he felt unsure about pursuing
In his Berlin studio, Ruprecht von Kaufmann works surrounded by the quiet textures of linoleum, a surface he has made his own. Sheets of it lean against the walls, layered with traces of paint, scratches, and cuts that record both his process and his thoughts. The space feels lived in, not in the cluttered sense,
Julie Stoppel never planned to become an art teacher, or a gallery owner for that matter. But in her life, the most meaningful turns have often come from spontaneous moments, from saying yes before she had time to think. As a child, she was always drawing. “I was the kid who sat next to the
When Holly Lampen looks back on her younger self, she remembers a girl who sometimes hesitated to share her work. “I don’t know, when I was younger I felt timid about sharing my work or thinking about what my friends were doing, what they were studying,” she says. “My advice to my younger self would
Christopher Schade speaks about painting with the conviction of someone who has been doing it for as long as he can remember. He describes his career as an ongoing loop between painting and teaching. What he makes in the studio influences what he shares with students, and what he learns in the classroom returns to
