In 2021, as the world attempted to piece normality back together again, I was settling into my first spring in my new home. I got to experience a world full of flowers I’d never heard of– I really gave the plant ID apps a run for their money trying to figure out all the flowers of the midwest spring I’d never grown up with as a far Northern California native.
Every flower tickled me. I wanted to document every new unfamiliar bloom both for myself and for my West Coast family. What began as a quest to capture the beauty multiplying by the day in my own front yard became a desire to put cottage cut flowers front and center in a more studied, purposeful, appreciative context.
As my gardens continued to teach me, I sought to learn how to do better justice to them as well. Piled high in my personal library are photographic books by the greats of floral design from yesteryear and today, as well as tomes of the varied approaches by Dutch and Flemish Masters we associate with classic still life florals. Willem Van Aelst and Rachel Ruysch’s oil paintings always have occupied places of esteem in my heart as the child of art gallery owners, and my new home was now giving me every opportunity to recreate my own homages to their work. Lucy Hunter, Ariella Chezar, TJ McGrath, and many floral designers keep my instagram algorithm and continue to educate me on just how versatile, original, and artistic floral art can be.
Most of all, I revel in the joy of being able to experience all the unseen art of cultivating pretty things. The anticipation of waiting for new blooms and the appreciation of flowers aging with dignity and grace. The excitement, as real as any child’s on Christmas, of checking my garden every morning and the glee of watching bumblebees swarm long-awaited fireworks of lupines, zinnias, azaleas, and open-centered roses.
I hope with every new season I can capture and share all these delights in a way that evangelizes the good word of gardening to new audiences and hopefully get the fellowship of a few exuberant ‘amen!’s along the way.
To keep up on new floral work, follow me on Instagram @takephotosmakethings, that’s the best way to see work with more updated recency.
Please enjoy some highlights of my work below. Prints, puzzles, journals, greeting cards and travel mugs are available at my Etsy.
