A Moment With Keith and Rachel of Flower Press Studio
At evanhealy, we’re endlessly inspired by the artistry of nature and those who work in harmony with it. Recently, we had a conversation with one of the two talented creators of Flower Press Studio, Keith, to learn more about unique perspectives on flowers, art, and the magic of co-creating with nature. For him, art is a dance with nature, transforming wildflowers and other botanicals into something timeless and extraordinary. Their (Rachel and Keith) work reminds us to look closer, to appreciate the beauty in every petal, and to embrace the mystery of what inspires us. Flower Press Studio spends a lot of time outside in the garden and is involved with the local community of makers, florists, and flower farmers to express our authenticity using organic materials grown from our mother earth.
Each year, we collaborate with gorgeous, independently owned flower farms that serve their local communities. Our intentions are to bring those farms' seasonal blooms to you in the form of pressed flower art.
So… do you actually have a favorite flower? You work with the darlings of the plant world and know them in a way most of us don’t. That’s fascinating.
A favorite flower? Hmm. In terms of a favorite flower that I like to work with, I could not narrow this question down to give one favorite. Instead to me, it’s more about appreciating the colors, shapes, and textures—the simple, natural beauty of all the flowers. When I start to create a piece, I look around on my tables and shelves and see hundreds of species and so much variety. Every flower, even if it is the same species, same everything, will press slightly differently and can be utilized in different ways in a piece. As far as a favorite flower that I like to look at, its the scene of a group of Colorado wildflowers. I am totally biased as I have been hiking through Colorado wildflowers for 15 years now, but they always stop me in my tracks. July and August are so amazing here as the mountainsides are just filled with them. I absolutely love it. Flowers, herbs, foliage, seeds, etc., they offer so much in terms of medicine, food for bees, birds, and insects, shelter for nature little guys, and I love that, but I’m always drawn to their aesthetics first. It's a sensory thing and my eyes are the first to appreciate their beauty.
When you’re creating your art, do you ever feel like you’re in a trance? Or maybe lost in some kind of flower dance of the soul? People are mesmerized watching you create!
Hahaha, no trance per se, but I do get a bit lost in it. I have had about 20+ jobs in my life (so many random ones), and this is the first time I can literally do something for hours on end and not care about looking at a clock. When a piece begins as a blank slate, my mind runs with endless ideas as the options are endless of how to begin. Then as the piece starts to take some sort of shape, things start to get more tricky and my brain and eyes search for a particular piece to continue the shape. Sometimes it’s a little overwhelming because I’m staring at 100 sheets of paper covered in flowers, trying to decide what to use. I’ll try 5-30 variations until something feels right to my eyes. My brain tells me when to stop though. I have made plenty of mistakes gluing something down when I should not have. And then I will be thinking about that one piece until I do something about it. Gluing something down and then realizing that flower annoys me is not fun. I am a bit OCD and I try to continue the shape and design of the piece but I will always notice this one flower that is “off” to my brain. Again, my eyes are pretty sensitive to the design. So the only way I can continue is to scrape off the flower itself and the glue residue and that is the worst. It takes about 30 minutes or an hour to do this as its a very gentle and precise procedure. A sharp razor, a dust blower, and a vacuum are all you need, but your hand better not slip as you can slice the paper, or another flower, causing way more damage to the piece. But once I do complete the removal of the flower, I find a replacement that I am 100% happy with and then I can begin to look at the whole piece with a calmer feeling.
This style of art works for me because I love colors, neatness, geometry, and flow. I am a fairly detail-oriented person and love quality control in work. I had no idea I’d be good at it until I started though—it’s so crazy how that happens. Before flower pressing, I was working at restaurants, dog walking, was a notary public, etc. Pressing flowers came about from Rachel planting a ton of flowers and me seeing some of the beauty of pressed flowers on the internet and I decided to just try it all out. It is always good to try. You may surprise yourself on what you find out from that experience.
What are the perfect flowers to press? I imagine it must be easy to get lost in their shapes and colors. Flowers feel so symbolic to me, each with its own personality. Your art is like floral abstraction, but it’s also a co-creation between you and nature.
Perfect flowers to press? That depends on the day and my mood! Some days, technical flowers (flowers like roses, peonies, ranunculus, proteas, dahlias, etc.), can calm me down because they take 5-15 minutes to deconstruct them before pressing and it takes a bit of finesse; other days, they just frustrate me because they either are not ready to be pressed and they need to open up more, they are past due, or they are holding onto so much moisture, which means you have to change the paper out later that day.
I love blue flax to press though. It’s so beautiful and fresh, and when pressing flax, I love to keep the stems on. Pressing just the flower part is tricky though because it’s so thin and staticky. The petals tend to shrivel up very quickly once picked so you better have a press ready to go if you want to press the flower. Gluing flax flower is even harder because it almost disintegrates as the adhesive is too strong for its thin petals. Every flower has its quirks and processes. I love them all, even the prickly ones.
I would say lavender is always pretty perfect to press. Not much to with it than putting it into the press. I love the thinner lavender than the more bulky version. It just looks better to me in a design as it offers a more delicate feel to the piece.
And as far as a scene that brings all the senses together, nothing beats finding a meadow or valley full of wildflowers in the mountains. The beauty, the smell, the movement is just so wonderful. That’s my happy place. Well, that, and a perfect Autumn day with aspen leaves floating in the wind. That is equally as nice as a wildflower valley.
I love how you’re experimenting with nature in new ways. What’s next for Flower Press Studio?
We’ve started pressing fruits, veggies, and more foliage in 2024! There are lots of farms where we live, so getting beautiful produce and herbs is such a treat and easy to do. It’s an entirely new experiment, and it’s been super rewarding so far. Currently, I am creating a new piece with the veggies that we sourced last year. It is something to look at for sure. It's just full of variety and textures from the peppers, eggplant, okra seeds and flower, parsnips, radish, beets, carrots, etc. The skins and the meat are all exposed. I love it so much.
If you want to stay in touch with Keith and Rachel, join their newsletter on their website. This is where they release any new art, share the stories of how it came to be, the farms they worked with to create each piece, and limited releases of prints and canvas. They also do fun giveaways and collaborations throughout the year and one is automatically entered into one of their giveaways if they are subscribed to their mailing list.