In and out of the world
To be present and to create is to live two separate lives. It’s like two friends who meet in their thirties and decide to build an everlasting friendship. They understand that they must exist both in and out of the world to succeed in such an endeavor.
To be present is to serve the world; to create is to escape from it. Each of these two brings me suffering and beauty, love and pain, and people to meet and understand.
What better tools are there to do this with than words and lenses?
About Zebras and Magpies:
Zebras and Magpies is rooted in an early idea for a printed magazine. It started in the early 2000s when I co-created my first teenage magazine alongside my three primary school friends. Most of it was hand-made and genuinely curated.
Two decades later, what became an insurmountable wish to spill out all the work I’ve created throughout the years, turned into a blog exploring the ever-complex human behavior, faith, friendship, art, health, science, modern lives in the rush to find peace, and the rare but significant moments of serenity.
After a few months of blog-only content, Zebras and Magpies grew into a multidisciplinary creative studio, keeping its stripes while growing new feathers.
The blog remains your balcony with a wooden chair where you can sit, rest, meet God, and observe the world through words and art. Don’t be surprised if you recognize yourself on the horizon.
About the author:
Hi, I’m Ana—the founder of Zebras and Magpies.
I’m a political scientist and journalist by diploma. At my core, I am a creative, and a curator, always exploring the intersections of disciplines in everything I do.
Career-wise, I’ve always been drawn to understanding people, ideas, and cultures, driven by an endless curiosity about the world. This curiosity has taken me from the halls of academia to international advocacy, teaching, journalism, and marketing—each chapter informing the next, each experience shaping my work.
Through it all, one thread has remained constant: curation. Whether through writing, lenses, painting, sketching, researching or styling, I have always been drawn to blending creativity with thoughtfulness.
Outside of work, I devote time to researching brachial plexus injuries (BPI) and Erb’s palsy—an injury I sustained during birth. This research helps me understand my own journey, raise awareness, and support others navigating similar challenges.
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It’s been a year of everything—but never just one thing.As I looked through the statistics, I noticed a pattern: the topics closest to my heart, and often the hardest to write about, either received the most attention or almost none at all. The gallery became the second most visited place—so I know what I need
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This essay was supposed to open with a beautiful quotation about the difference between loneliness and solitude—two opposing states of being. It was one of my favorites when I first discovered it as a teenager, and it stayed with me throughout the years, only for me to later realize that the person who said it
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How often do you think about growth? The burning fire within to change for the better, to leave some old things behind, to build from the ground and start anew? It’s difficult, isn’t it? So difficult that staying unchanged feels safe. But it’s not. It’s dangerous — especially when you’re convinced that you’ve achieved the
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