Freya Dutta

I'm a designer and artist looking to reconnect with things that fire up my passion, and making art is a large part of that. My day job is in professional design, I work with groups to better present themselves, this ranges from labour unions in NYC, to villagers in Indonesia struggling with climate change. I also used to work as a product designer at tech companies for many years, but found that it didn't really enrich me at the end of the day. Aside from my studio's work, I worked as a design professor at Parsons teaching design and technology to graduate students there. While all of this work is rewarding, it is often really emotionally challenging and with the state of the world as it is, I was running on fumes for the last few years. I recently relocated from Brooklyn after 12 years of living there to move to Lisbon, Portugal to better cater to my own needs as a creative person.
I have struggled with setting up a regular creative practice that is just for me, and get really caught up with perfectionism. Although I attended design school and taught at several, I am mostly technically self taught in art and crafts (I am also an amateur weaver). I am hoping to set up better habits and the discipline needed to commit to my art this year, and see where that journey takes me.