STORY TIME

My grandma Gerri was a clown. 

In some of my earliest memories, she’s painting her face white and fixing a fluffy red wig to her head. She’s embracing the ogling of strangers and stopping to share jokes with whoever will indulge her.
She was known to incite joy with the balloon pump she kept hidden in her suitcase. She seemed to pull magic out of her hat. I think she was a laughter artist. 

When she passed away, planning her funeral was hasty and joyless.

“Choose this or that. Open or closed casket? Sign here.”
I watched the full color spectrum of her life reduced to a few checkboxes. As an artist, I was unsettled. 

Wishing that her memorial had looked and felt more like the joyous life she had lived, I launched studio gerri as a creative outlet for confronting my grandmother’s memory. Driven by my experience in the floral industry, I reimagined and recreated the flower arrangements that would surround her at her funeral. 

Deeply aware of the carbon footprint of floristry, studio gerri offers an alternative to fresh-cut flowers through the careful process of memorial garden planning. Together we can bring the memory of your loved one to the private, contemplative setting of a home or office garden.

Backed by several years of experience in ecological restoration, landscape design, visual arts, and floristry, I am excited to make myself available for your urgent and personal floral needs.