The Wild Mother Creative Studio, based in Oklahoma City; from left, Callie Palmer (seated, left); Lauren Palmer (standing) and Leah Palmer (seated, right) | All photography (c) Rachel Maucieri @maucierivisualsco
Today, I have a very special episode for you and I'm thrilled to share it! Please meet the three siblings who together are called The Wild Mother: Leah Palmer, Lauren Palmer and Callie Palmer. They are based in Oklahoma City and call their enterprise a Creative Studio, which encompasses their tagline "More than Just Flowers."
The Creative Studio is multidisciplinary and collaborative across other art forms, most often expressed to the public through floral design
Here's a bit of an introduction, adapted from their website's "About" page:
The Wild Mother Creative Studio is owned by Afro-Indigenous sisters and floral artists Lauren Palmer and Leah Palmer, located in the heart of Arts district, Downtown, OKC. Their love and honor of culture, storytelling, and their affinity for natural elements and color theory lend themselves to producing their “Floral Stories.” It’s an added bonus that they get to work alongside their younger sister, Callie. The Wild Mother's offerings include full service wedding and event floral, curbside carryout floral for large-scale events, and holiday floral offering.
The Wild Mother women and their studio space, based in the Oklahoma City Arts District
The Wild Mother has positioned their entire business as a legacy project—using flowers and floral art installations to heal their lineage forwards and backwards; to send honor to their ancestors whose experiences in America were tragic; and to build a world for their future descendants that is more beautiful, more equitable, and more just.
I first learned about The Wild Mother from Susan McLeary who encouraged me to attend a free webinar hosted by the studio at the beginning of this year. Called "More than Just Flowers," the webinar was outlined as: A Panel Discussion for Creatives on Building Affirming, Equitable and Just Brands. Moderated by Leah and Lauren, with help from Callie, the session covered meaningful representation in the wedding & creative industry; a discussion of exploitation versus appreciation; goals for building an anti-racist brand and considerations for BIPOC clients.
A number of floral community voices participated, including Sue McLeary and Kristin Griffith-VanderYacht, who you've met here on the Slow Flowers Podcast. Other panelists included a number of people from related disciplines such as event planning, marketing and branding and fine art curation. It was a powerful gathering with honest and open dialogue designed to inspire and challenge attendees who want to be intentional and inclusive with the way they shows up in the world.
Watch Video Replay of "More than Just Flowers" Webinar
Next, The Wild Mother launched The Lay of the Land, an online course for creatives interested in digging deeper in the topic of building an affirming, equitable and just brand.
Register for The Lay of the Land - an Online Course from The Wild Mother Creative Studio
I'm eager for you to meet Leah, Lauren and Callie. One of the reasons I asked them to join me today was to introduce their upcoming project called Send Flowers to Greenwood. This is an ambitious series of floral installations that will commemorate the Greenwood Massacre of 1921. Oklahomans and the rest of country are only now beginning to acknowledge what took place 100 years ago in Tulsa, when the vibrant, successful Black-owned Greenwood District, known as "Black Wall Street," was destroyed and many of the people who lived there lost their homes, businesses, and lives due to an attack by Klan members and others who wanted to eliminate the existence of brown and black people in their city.
Taking place at the end of May, The Wild Mother's #SendFlowersToGreenwood will be both a virtual and physical outpouri...