I met Miko in a flower shop. I liked her the instant she said hello. How could I not be enchanted? Here was this woman, surrounded by the scents of freesia and sweet peas, talking about passion and Romanticism and art. And this was only our first conversation!
There were many to follow. We started meeting regularly for happy hours. We giggled a lot and shared personal stuff about our lives, as happy hour moments encourage one to do, but then we got deep… and vulnerable. We ventured into the topic of collaboration. Da-da-da dum!
Side note here…
My friend June, a fantastic thinker, visual artist, and master printmaker, has coined a phrase associated with artists trying to work together. She calls it ‘collaboration-itus.’ If you catch this creative disease, it’s chronic. You love it, you hate it, you love to hate it, you hate that you love it, and it’s addictive. Artists can cradle their work like their own children. We are protective, but we also like to play together. Playing is of course the fun part, but if there’s a fight on the playground, look out. Recovering, getting up from skinned knees and bruised egos can be hard. If you can get through the conflicts though, oh if you can, you can make years of beautiful work.
So Miko and I talked about collaboration. Though we both had been bruised, we liked and respected each other, so we decided to trust again.
Skip, hopscotch, and jump rope ahead six months…
In June 2016, Miko and I successfully taught a workshop combining paper flower sculpture and poetry influenced by flower symbolism and mythology. We were so inspired by working together that we decided to expand the workshop into a business.
Currently, we are busily making products and doing our research. Soon we will obtain the domain for our brand, establish our Facebook page, and begin our new adventure! ‘Collaboration-itus’ be damned! We have work to do!
