My mornings in Paris

Creating for myself fuels what I am able to share with others. Online learning may be easy and convenient, but the very reason I organize workshops in the first place is to bring people together, to not just chat about paper or paint, but about life as well.

My watercolor workshops provide a safe space where others can show up for themselves, too. My students are not all artists—they simply need a break from their everyday lives, make time for themselves, and find joy in creating. And then they can go back to their regular lives after, with beautiful art supplies and skills for a new hobby that hopefully helps them de-stress and regulate.

In the past years, I have brought these watercolor workshops with me all over the world, partnering with restaurants, hotels, and boutiques. It’s only this year, though, that I feel I am totally investing in myself and in the work of my own hands.

Showing up before you’re ready

The ultimate dream this year was to join a fair where I could showcase my watercolor surface pattern designs. One ordinary day, I applied to join Maison et Objet, an annual international furniture and home goods fair in Paris. They have a Pattern Lab section with booth sizes perfect for solo designers like me.

Just two days after I sent in my application, Maison&Objet said yes. Suddenly, my hypothetical dream had a booth number.

Oh, wow!! Oh, no?? What did I get myself into?!

But yeses are always signs you are on the right path, so I embraced the opportunity and the entire preparation process.

Showing up in bigger rooms

Usually, there is a Philippine delegation of designers and brands that comes to the fair. But for this edition, I am the country’s only representative. Thankfully, my cousin Noelle Hilario, whom I travel with every year, was here to help me.

On setup day, we made our way to Parc de Expositions Villepint, through the big halls to find the Pattern Lab section. The organizers of the fair were such pros. Everything is set up for you on their website. There is an app where all contacts and inquiries can be scanned and logged. There were ushers everywhere.

Each all-white booth was equipped with a locker and key, power outlets, a large table and three chairs, and corner walls covered in fabric.

It was all sorts of kilig and excitement finding my booth and seeing my booth number, P63, with our Philippine flag on it! This little 2-sqm. space would be my stage for the next five days.

I came prepared with my sample prints on paper, fabric, and lots of sticky tack. The bare walls were the perfect blank slate for me to feel like a beginner again, even after 15 years. This time, I’m the student entering the room to learn, meet, and participate.

Keep showing up

It was so interesting to meet the people who stopped to look at my designs. And they come to Maison&Objet from all over the world—Norway, India, Japan, Greece, and Argentina—with the same interest in my tropical watercolor patterns.

I took a risk showcasing my pattern designs filled with kalachuchis, bougainvilleas, coconuts, saba, malunggay, makahiya, santan, and mangosteen—what is ordinary in our gardens and on our tables.

What a surprise that people from all over the world like them, too!

Whenever that impostor syndrome kicks in—“what the heck am I doing here?!”—I think about this: who else better to bring the florals and tropics to Maison than someone who grew up with a lush garden and these fruit trees in their backyard?

That’s me!

When you pull from your own story and your own experiences, the work becomes undeniable, unquestionable. The doubts in my head are immediately silenced.

Pushing your work forward doesn’t always happen alone in the studio. Sometimes it happens by putting your work on a table, standing beside it, and seeing who stops to look. And it allows one to appreciate all the different types of creatives who have shown up here as well, sharing their own unique stories.

For several days, I was surrounded by people who also paint and design for a living. I met new designer friends at the fair: Paola Pagano from Italy, and Fatma of Monor Designs from Kuwait. We compared notes, talked about how we work, and learned how artists in other countries present and license their designs.

At the end of the productive week, we were all exhausted. Showing up doesn’t become any easier. We just push ourselves to do it before we know exactly what will happen next.

Showing up in small ways

Maybe bigger dreams don’t always begin with bigger moves. Sometimes they begin quietly: waking up early, making something before the rest of the day starts, following an idea, or sending an application before you feel completely ready.

Creating art has trained me to be courageous in small increments: every brush stroke on a blank canvas is a brave act.

Fifteen years of creative mornings have somehow led me here, to a tiny booth in a very big fair in Paris. Participating in Pattern Lab at Maison&Objet was about bringing my surface patterns to an international market, to see how far the work of my own hands and the stories I grew up with could travel.

And tomorrow, I’ll enjoy a quiet breakfast, show up for myself, and begin again.