Hi, I'm Irene!
Since I was little I have felt close to very distant places. Because since I was little I have learned to keep loved ones far away. And from a very young age I knew that it was nothing more than an opportunity to visit those who are far away and enjoy those distant places as if they were also my own home.
With the idea in mind of studying something that would allow me to spend some time abroad, I decided to study architecture. I started off on the wrong foot and had to go to a university that was not in my plans. And it turned out it was much better.
But like all good things, it also had its bad moments. And when I was about to give up because nothing was going right for me, I enjoyed a plan b again. Do you remember when I told you that I wanted to study abroad? Well, I applied for a place at a university where classes were given in a language I was fluent in. But… surprise! They didn’t give me the place. And this is how a person who does not speak a word of German moves to Germany.
Long story short, I’ve had a pencil, marker, or scissors in my hand for as long as I can remember. When I was little I wanted to be a painter or a doctor, so when the time came, I decided to study architecture, which taught me to combine technique and art to solve situations.
Over the years of my studies, I’ve learned that the things you like, if they don’t exist, you make them up. When I was on Erasmus in Germany I also learned that if you invent things and know how, you can build them. And so, like someone who doesn’t want things, the idea of doing things I couldn’t find was installed in my brain.
Luckily (because I like to think of it as luck) a few years have passed between when I decided I could do the things I liked and when I have been able to do it. I like to call it luck because these years I have spent drawing, researching and traveling. Finding.
And then we arrive to today. To my plan A.
To the ability to daydream, to travel from before catching a plane and to remember all the good things that have happened just by seeing an object, a garment or a pattern again.
Each of the pieces that you will find here comes from a creative process almost of distillation, of transforming inspiration into something completely different.
Why Arranz Astasio?
Because I am optimistic. And stubborn. And if I have learned anything over the years, it is that things, if you can imagine them, you can build them. It doesn’t matter if it’s an igloo in Antarctica or a kinder reality.
Because creating allows me to escape, develop new realities. And those realities can only be made in an artisanal and unique way. No two universes are the same.
Illustrating helps me escape and I want to convey that feeling to you. Each project is a serotonin pill, that light filtered through the leaves. Conveying sensations through illustrations is creating a trigger of happiness, seeing something that makes you remember a good moment or someone special is as powerful as the smell of your grandmother’s homemade food.