Today we’d like to introduce you to Carolyn Williams, Emily Rypkema, Liz Rypkema, Grace Rypkema, Anneliese Rypkema
Hi Carolyn Williams, Emily Rypkema, Liz Rypkema, Grace Rypkema, Anneliese Rypkema, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
As you know we are 5 sisters. Born to the same parents but with a 10 year age gap between the oldest to the youngest. Different seasons have changed what that age gap actually felt like but LEGACY has become a way we both embrace and shrink that gap. Years ago we all found ourselves craving some creative space and began encouraging each other in the projects we were working on. We thought it would be fun to collaborate on a project, that was when we put together our first calendar in 2018. Business strategy has never been the focus of LEGACY. Instead it has been about celebrating our friendships, encouraging creativity along with our individual strengths while challenging our perceived weaknesses. Sometimes we have a beautiful product to present for our time. Sometimes all we have to show for our efforts is a lengthy text thread of our newest endeavors and/or failures or “toilet paper projects” as we like to call them. Our hope is that regardless of what we tangibly produce that what we have worked for under the title of LEGACY will last much longer than this company ever will.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The road has been about as smooth as you could imagine a journey with 5 sisters could be. Yes we love each other, but don’t get paint on my favorite shirt or else you’re dead. Learning to collaborate has been our lifelong calling and this is no different. Sometimes our projects flow so seamlessly and other times we are choosing who would be the best to deliver a deadline mandate to a less than motivated sibling. This journey has grown us as individuals, as sisters, and friends. We are just as thankful to have rooms where we can create together as there are doors (and miles) that can separate us.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Legacy Studio is a home for our creativity. Our website boasts an annual calendar collaboration that we all work on as a group, with individual pages for our individual projects. Most of the projects listed on there now are paintings we love. We also have a section for our mom, who wrote a children’s coloring book shortly before she passed away last spring, and it is a space where we pay a tribute of sorts to her. An important thing to know is that none of us have a career based around art. I think it is easy to see some paintings and some faces and start assuming. We are a Pediatric ER Nurse, a Marketing Consultant, a Child Life Specialist, a 4th Grade Teacher, and an Emergency Technician. What we specialize in and what we create are often very different things. We also often find ourselves in circles where creativity is seen as a personality trait, like you either have it or you don’t, and subsequently your professional work should correlate with that as well. We strongly disagree with this and have worked to fight against it in our own lives. What we are most proud of is the testimony that came from just trying something new and fun that we could do together, and in this exploration it has unlocked a drive to try just about anything artistically. This has also given us the freedom to adapt what we do and how we do it, to “make messes together” we like to say. There is no limit when you decide that there is little to no risk with artistic failure. We have explored different painting mediums, drawing, calligraphy, pottery, building, design, app development, creative writing, poetry, workshops, classes etc. We don’t think we can move on without mentioning that this gene to just try was something we inherited from a very special person. Our mom was a person who never let conventional norms or fear of failure stop her. She was an artist in her own right and we know that it was being raised by her that truly sets us apart.
Risk taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
Risk is an interesting thought. We touched on it a little in the previous question but when your every-day life would not typically include creativity it can look incredibly risky and oddly personal to expose your attempts. We have talked a lot recently about how humbling it is to try new things as an adult. To allow others to see a product that you created from your own imagination is like letting them into your home and hoping they’ll feel what you feel when you take your shoes off and sink onto your couch. It is vulnerable and in most spaces we can remove the vulnerability. We want to be a voice for others that says expressing yourself creatively is worth the risk of failure. Practicing an art form that you may not feel a natural knack for is worth the risk of finishing without a producing anything. We wouldn’t consider ourselves huge risk takers but when you start talking to people about picking up a paint brush just to try something new its cool to realize that maybe you just weren’t defining risk the right way.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.legacystudio.co
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/legacystudio.co/
