Making Space: My First In-Studio Classes

This spring I taught my first in-studio art classes in my own space, and it felt like a real shift in my teaching practice.

In March and April, I worked with a small group of five wonderfully creative and enthusiastic participants. After more than 15 years of teaching in universities and community colleges, stepping into my own studio as a teaching space was something quite different. The scale was more intimate, the atmosphere more focused, and the whole experience felt closer to the actual pulse of making work.

There was something very special about being surrounded by my own work, materials, and ongoing processes while teaching. The studio isn’t a neutral classroom—it carries traces of everything I’m currently developing, which naturally feeds into the sessions. It also meant I could shape a slower, more attentive rhythm for the group, where experimentation really had time to unfold.

The participants brought so much energy and openness into the space. We worked through drawing and collage exercises, using diverse materials, testing ideas, and finding new ways of looking. It quickly became less about “learning techniques” in a fixed sense and more about developing individual visual languages together.

And then there were the small things that somehow became part of the atmosphere too: coffee and tea ready in the mornings, sometimes even home-made vegan cookies. These moments created a gentle start to each session and helped turn the studio into a place you arrive into rather than just enter.

What stayed with me most was how much everyone seemed to enjoy working in this setting—how the studio itself became part of the process, not just a backdrop to it.

That experience has now grown into a new series of classes beginning this June in my Munich studio:

On Thursdays, starting 11 June, I’ll be running a six-week morning class (10:00–12:30) exploring mixed media drawing and collage. This course is open to anyone interested in experimenting with layering, image-making, texture, and developing a personal visual language in a relaxed, supportive environment.

Also starting Thursday 11 June is a ceramic sculpture class running for seven weeks in the evenings, focused on hand-built approaches and sculptural experimentation.

And from Tuesday 16 June, there will be a six-week evening class in collage and mixed media drawing, offering another space to work intuitively with paper, image, drawing, and material exploration.

All classes take place in my studio in Munich and are designed to be small, focused, and open to both beginners and more experienced participants who want to develop their practice further in a shared creative environment.

It’s been a pleasure to see how much can happen in a small group when the setting allows for time, attention, and play—and I’m really looking forward to continuing that work in the upcoming sessions.