It started as an exercise, an experiment, and a continuation of our respective artistic practices. It also served as an excuse for two best friends to spend time together like we always had. In college, our countless all-nighters in the Flagler art studios always meant bouncing ideas off one another, laughing, making art, and delighting in our effortless creative synergy.
Years after college, we found ourselves evolving together in new and unexpected ways, like learning how to balance being mothers, wives, and working artists. Danielle was becoming an expert at juggling a successful multi-faceted design business and a family life that included a husband and three young children, and, at the same time, Lauren was perfecting how to simultaneously run a small business and her ceramic studio, all while traveling back and forth from Sweden with her Swedish husband and their two small children.
As life allowed, we would reconvene to reflect on our early days as creatives and on our experiences abroad, as when we studied together in Florence, Italy. In some ways, it felt like the days of roaming around piazzas and museums with nothing but sketchbooks and drawing supplies in tow were lived in another life altogether. And, in some ways, they were.
Beginning in March of 2020, the world pandemic created new waves of emotions and unfamiliar ebbs and flows of life and creativity in which new challenges arose daily. Like so many others, we found ourselves longing for people and places that seemed further away than ever.
Our "Wish You Were Here, Dear" series emerged slowly and subtly as we dusted off our sketchbooks and reopened them with new perspectives and purposes. Suddenly, we found ourselves transported to times and places during which our sole collective focus was traveling throughout Europe, observing awe-inspiring art, and drawing “en plein air”.
As we brainstormed concepts and ideas for our collaboration, we collected countless vintage postcards. Many were written upon years ago, and the witty, era-specific writings left us with either belly laughs or in awe over the dated penmanship and stilted diction. We both gravitated to the idea of using familiar words and phrases that were conversational and could be read as postcards or letter closings.
On the release of our first collection, we were thrilled to discover that our collaboration was so much more than our inside jokes and shared sensibilities. We were excited to find that our dreamy imagery and nostalgic storytelling resonated with people in many ways. Our illustrations, our words, and our vessels were conjuring up childhood memories or long-lost places shared with loved ones.
Our ceramic pieces were bought as gifts and were being shipped all over during a moment in all of our lives when we desperately needed connection, even if just in the form of a meaningful, correspondence.
