PeopleInterview
Three hours in Sablé Diop's studio
She has been sewing since she was fourteen, exhibiting since twenty-three, and still refuses to talk about "African fashion." Interview in her workshop in the 19th arrondissement.
Marilyse
PeopleOp-ed
I left art school and I don't regret it
Three years of study, two years of doubt, one decision. What I'd want to say to anyone hesitating right now.
Léa Mensah1 min
I'd been warned it would be hard. Nobody told me it would be empty.
What was missing
Not the resources, not the teachers. The meaning. I was producing for assessments, never for anyone in particular. Three years in, I had a portfolio and no idea what I wanted to say.
Leaving isn't giving up. It's refusing to keep going out of habit.
What happened next
I worked at a gallery, badly paid, and learned more in six months than in three years: how a project gets built, financed, defended. I still draw. I just know why now.
To anyone hesitating
Don't leave because it's hard. Leave if you can no longer answer the question: what am I doing here.
Read next
