ch. I · the studio
An AI engineer · A dental hygienist
We're Antonio · Kirsten.
A two-person studio. He writes the systems that quietly hold the place together. She draws every line that leaves the building. Together we make about six finished objects a month, by hand, on a table by the kitchen window.
Below: six rooms with us — left, the photograph; right, the drawing it became.
- Founded
- 2024
- Studio
- The studio
- Output
- ~6 / month
- Headcount
- 2
- Tools
- Pencil, ink, paper
- Working language
- Slow
ch. II · six rooms with us
Each picture, twice.
On the left, what the photograph saw. On the right, what Kirsten drew of it.
The right side is what we send out the door — pressed, folded, and mailed.
I · the park
Where we said yes to the studio.
An afternoon walk in late May. We talked about how Kirsten's portraits had piled up in a drawer and wondered whether other people might want one. By the time we got home, mi amor mi vida had a name.
PhotographDrawing
I Real II Drawn II · the skyline
Brooklyn, before now.
We lived three flights up in Bushwick — the kitchen table that became our first desk is the same table that sits at the studio now, three states south and a degree warmer.
PhotographDrawing
I Real II Drawn III · the hike
The walking we do most weeks.
Half the studio's decisions get made on the trail along the James. The other half get made over coffee at home. Either way, very few are made at a desk.
PhotographDrawing
I Real II Drawn IV · the close-up
The reference Kirsten kept drawing.
She drew this photograph thirty-four times before we picked one. The drawing on the right is the eleventh — the one we framed and hung over the bed.
PhotographDrawing
I Real II Drawn V · the lake
Quiet weeks in July.
We close the studio for one week each summer. We swim. We don't draw. We come back with one new pen, exactly one, every time.
PhotographDrawing
I Real II Drawn VI · the apartment
Where the work actually gets made.
Cotton paper on the long table. Kraft envelopes by the door. A bicycle — Antonio's — leaning by the door for the post-office run on Tuesdays and Fridays.
PhotographDrawing
I Real II Drawn
ch. III · how we work
Slowly, deliberately, in batches small enough to remember.
Every commission enters a small queue. Kirsten draws at a pace that allows the drawings to be good — not fast, not efficient, just good. A book takes three to four weeks. A portrait takes two to three. A print enters the archive only after Kirsten decides it deserves to live past the sketchbook.
Antonio handles everything that is not drawing: the shop, the post, the framing, the emails, the printer (whose name is Gerald and who holds a grudge). Between the two of us it is enough.
A photograph is a document. A drawing is a decision. The translation from one to the other is the love letter.
— from the studio notebook, March 2026
who does what
Antonio
Writes the systems, answers the post, sharpens the pencils, bicycles the orders to the post office.
- Pen
- Pilot G-Tec 0.4
- Bike
- Steel, brown
- Coffee
- Black, no fuss
Kirsten
Draws every line that leaves the studio. Decides what gets sent and what stays in the sketchbook.
- Blade
- Olfa 300
- Paper
- Hahnemühle cotton
- Coffee
- Oat flat white
ch. IV · this month
This month, in plain language.
- 23 April
- Rewrote the homepage as a letter, not a menu.
- 11 April
- Began the first Annual. Cotton stock chosen; cover still undecided.
- 02 April
- Repaired the binding jig. It is slightly louder now.
- 21 March
- Delivered the first Standard short of the quarter.
colophon · if you would like to work with us
We reply to every letter.
Commission a film, a portrait, or reserve a print through the shop. If your project is not quite one of those, write to us directly and describe it. We read every message and answer in the order they arrive — usually within a day, almost always within two.
Yours,
Antonio and Kirsten
The studio · MMXXVI