I’m often asked about the inspiration behind our prints. The new fall Koi print is no different. Our loyal customers took to the print quickly and soon enough I was peppered with questions about the origin story. Because of this, I thought I would take the time to give you all insight on our process.

Nine out of ten times it begins with me in front of the canvas or sketch pad working on something from the wild or from a still life. For the Koi print, this began in Naples, Florida where we were, at the time, hosting a pop up with our friend, Joan Tobin. I stumbled upon a fabulous photograph taken by my friend Victoria Mele. The photo was a simple yet bold look at a peony–one of my favorite flowers. She challenged me to see what I could do to transform the photograph into a painting. And of course, I said yes.

I began with watercolor on gessoed paper–playing with color as I went. In the end, I was quite happy with the result, finding it to be a perfect middle ground of the photograph and my own voice as a painter. Next step was to make this painting a print. This fell to my fabulously talented business partner, Larry Black, who is adept at making prints. He worked on several variations looping me in as he worked. We volleyed it back and forth a bit like a match of tennis until finally we had it. Then the print passed along to my daughter Sunny who names all of our prints. She has a gift for always finding something either cheeky or something that just rolls off the tongue. So Koi it was. From there our talented team began transforming best selling silhouettes and new styles with the print and a collection was born. It’s amazing what can happen from a simple decision to say yes and see where art takes you.