This very first blog post is titled 2023. because it was and still is very significant, challenging and good for me. This year reset me in every single way. I entered 2023 with a little heart beating beneath mine, full of desires, ideas, and dreams. In March, I opened my solo exhibition "Deconstruction: From Unfamiliar Landscape to Monochromes" at Oblok Gallery in Zagreb. It was such an excellent collaboration. In late April, Maximilian arrived and became the reason for everything. At that time, my paintings were exhibited in Istanbul at the Premier and in Berlin at the Women's Essence Show. What an excuse for my absence. In July, we opened one of my favourite exhibitions, Dialogue": City in Juraj Klović Gallery in Rijeka, where I exhibited my recent artworks along with my friends and great artists Edi Gustin, Mateja Rusak, and Dora Bakek. Shortly after, we opened Art ćakula's second group exhibition, "Conversations with Myself", in the same gallery. I participated in the Ljubljana Art Expo and joined the Salvador club under the AAMI Corporation based in Ljubljana in October. In November, curator and museologist Sonja Švec Španjol published our interview on the Perceive Art portal, precisely on the portal's tenth anniversary. I created all the artworks that I exhibited at these events this year. I must admit that, perhaps, due to limited time and Max's drill, I was creating with a decisive automatism and ease.

This fall, I ventured into unknown waters and joined the entrepreneurial incubator Hubbazia under the patronage of the City of Opatija, led by Croatian startup leader Smion. The story begins two years ago when I opened a business for artistic creation without a concrete vision but out of the need for advancement.

With the help of Hubbazia and Smion, I've become aware of many things that, I admit as an artist, were previously unattractive and unknown to me, the things I was doing wrong. We've created a business plan (I laugh at myself), and now I've stepped out of my comfort zone and know what to do. Full of fear but also full of enthusiasm and creativity, I'm opening a webshop.

This step is a small yet significant beginning after more than ten years of continuous creating after stepping out of the Academy, a few hundred paintings, about thirty group exhibitions, around ten solo exhibitions, a lot of experimenting, self-discovery and great persistence to overcome obstacles which I like to call challenges.

After this being said, I want to express my gratitude to everyone who believes that I know what I wish to do, to everyone who made me more persistent and determined than before, to everyone who has recognized my work and huge thanks to Hubbazia and Smion for dedicated and professional mentoring. Everything that seemed like a big deal for me with them was very instructive and fun.

The webshop will go live as soon as the great Iteh sistemi enables it. This December, in 2023.

 Everything that seemed like a big deal for me with them was very instructive and fun.

Thank you, 2023.

You can expect more about the webshop, my beginnings, exhibitions, creating process, contemplations, challenges, inspiration, and some heavier artistic themes in months to come. I'm very excited about it all.

Kristina