introducing the artist collection
We have been dreaming up a few fun projects this year and one of them has come to life! While we continue to fill our calendar with more road trips and shows, we get the opportunity to meet some amazing and very talented artists. As a result, we’ve decided to start initiating more collaborations within the styles we offer. Because of our ability to screen print our own designs, we want to work with these artists and their creativity on the medium of our T-shirts. We would like to introduce ‘The Artist Collection’— T-shirts screen printed with designs from various artists around the country!
The idea has a lot to do with community. I believe that in order to achieve great things in this world, you have to be a team player and not attempt to fly solo. I know my abilities to design have limits, so working one-on-one with another artist who has a different perspective is so refreshing! I pitched an idea for the shirt and then gave freedom for the artist to do whatever they felt would fit these styles best. The results have been so rewarding.
I would like to introduce our first artist, Riley Youngstrom, a beautiful soul living in out in North Carolina. I met her and her dad, Kent, in Waco during Fall Silobration last year. We had to bundle up and endure the constant downpour of rain for three days and if that experience doesn’t bring people together, I don’t know what will. We made the best of it and had a really great time connecting!
I asked Riley to do a little interview with us so you guys could get to know her better. Get ready, my heart wanted to burst I was so filled with joy working with this girl. Shirts from this artist collection are on sale now. CLICK HERE.
At what age were you introduced to visual art and the importance of creating? This question always makes me laugh because I was born into a home that was full of art and creativity. Not only visually, but even in the way we lived. My dad has been a full time artist since the time I could walk. Growing up, our walls were never bare and everything we did had to be creative, it felt like. He’d pack us funky shaped sandwiches for lunch and a lot of family vacations centered around art shows and galleries. It was a childhood that I brag about now and love to tell stories of. But it wasn’t until I moved on my own that I realized the importance of creating.
I had moved fully into my new apartment; furniture and all, but it still felt bare and almost empty. I realized none of my walls had canvas or color on them—and I hadn’t yet known a home without it. And for me, the beautiful, chaotic, creative mind of an artist is home. I feel warm and safe when things are joyful, wild, colorful, emotional, and visually propelling. Creativity is important for every human for different reasons. But for me, creativity is home.
Where is your home base and what keeps you there? Home base for me is Charlotte, North Carolina. I live a couple blocks outside the city in a spunky little neighborhood called Dilworth. Coffee shops, restaurants, and walking trails galore. I ride my bike just about everywhere and know the name of every barista at my favorite local coffee shop and I wouldn’t have it any other way. Charlotte is exciting because it is still becoming. It hasn’t quite figured out what it wants to be yet, and in a way, it’s fun for everyone here to learn and grow along with it. For the time being, Charlotte is the best place for me, but come the next couple months, I hope to be packed up for my next adventure. My heart and soul need to be in the mountains, so a move out west could be in my future.
What keeps you inspired and fueled to show in this world in a positive way? People. 100% people. I don’t really know where the intrigue came from but I’ve always been head over heels in love with people and their stories. The beautiful complexity of a human’s heart and the way God made it has always lit a fire in me. I think when we are living with honesty, empathy, and vulnerability, we are all touching the world with gentle and positive hands. My hope is to live my life in transparent authenticity, so that others feel they can do the same.
Who has been the most empowering influence in your life? This question. So hard for me. I am deeply impacted by people, as most of us are. It’s the people that have believed in me when I didn’t that I am the most loyal to. Since I was a little girl, I have admired my aunt Amy. She has been an older sister, second mom, kind of relationship for me. She is everything I hope to be as a mother, wife, and friend. She is kind hearted, genuinely engaged and present in all of her interactions, patient, faithful, and supportive. She is the person that makes me want to be better just in knowing her.
Ok you guys, are you as blown away by Riley’s interview as I am? Riley’s spirit, courage, and joyous creativity are such an inspiration to me, that I am so encouraged to seek more community with new artists to work with. We are offering a limited amount of collaborations per year, so if you are an artist interested in collaborating with Ramble & Co. for our Artist Collection, please reach out! We have a few more lined up, so stay tuned!
THE ARTIST COLLECTION
