I'm Alba, a visual artist and graphic designer from Madrid, currently based in Barcelona.

I'm still figuring out my place between different artistic practices, but for now, a lot of my work revolves around self-publishing - mostly zines and printmaking - and trying to approaach everything I do from a place of love and care.

I've been drawing and creating since I was a kid. A few years ago, I moved to Barcelona to study Art and Design, and although I started out more focused on graphic design, I eventually drifted toward practices that felt closer to contemporary art. Since then, I've been navigating this in-between space.

One of the things that shaped me the most was the printmaking studio at my university. It was a safe, queer, joyful space where i could experiment, fail, and laugh with my friends, and it really changed the way I understand making.

As a teenager, I was definitely more of an indie kid than a pop one - the kind who cried over heartbreaks to Artctic Monkeys and dreamed of being as mysterious and nonchalant as Effy from Skins.

But in the last few years I've been leaning into softer, lighter things that give my brain a break and help soothe my anxiety. That's included rewatching Glee religiously once a year, rediscovering Sex and the City, and playing silly love songs by Cariño and other Spanish artists on loop.

My favorite one so far has been Amorzine, my final degree project. It's a collective zine that came togetehr through different collaborations with some of my closest friends, and it marked the beginning of my ongoing research process, Self-publishing for a World in a Loving Crisis.

It was about reclaiming tenderness care, collectivity, and vulnerability through self-publishing - seeing it as a form of resistance, a space where love can have agency and be explored as a method. it was also a really fun and playful process, where i got to experiment and learn a lot along the way.

Try to have fun with what you're doing. be a little gentler with yourself, and allow space for things to go different than you expected. learning to embrace failure is key if we want to start unraveling all the success narratives we're been taught to chase.

And more than anything, take care of each other. Support your friends and the creative community around you. make things easier for others in whatever ways you can - go to their shows, buy their zines, repost that story about their latest achievement even if it sparks a bit of envy. Share your space and make room to listen. Things are already hard enough - we don't have to do this alone. And honestly, it wouldn't be nearly as fun if we did.