Today we’d like to introduce you to Annie Narrigan and Victoria Florio.
Every artist has a unique story. Can you briefly walk us through yours?
We met at MassArt during our sophomore year after both deciding to major in printmaking. The two of us bonded right away, sharing everything from music, clothes, memes, and artistic advice. Both of us knew we liked making things, and both felt like we were making pretty good things, but having that other person–to cheer you on, push you, motivate you–was so important to both of us. We ended up doing a really terrible collaboration project the following year and worked on our own projects. After graduating years later, we decided to try making things together again.
In 2016, we launched Life Wife Press, a small business born out of, among other things, needing an escape from our dumb jobs and comfort out in the post-grad world. A “life wife” is a term we coined to describe our friendship. We drew together, designed products together, and talked endlessly about all the stuff in shops already, how we could do that but make it ours. We opened an online store, and slowly began filling it with enamel pins, t-shirts, hats, totes, all with weird illustrations and text from our inside jokes.
For the last year, we’ve been cranking out projects. More clothes, pins, keychains, greeting cards. Things we like. Then we started making things we thought other people would like. Somewhere along the way, that took priority. It’s hard, trying to make your part-time dream a full-time reality. Bills stack up, orders keep coming in, and you have to acknowledge the Instagram algorithm at some point too. We realized that mass producing hundreds of t-shirts at once and making stuff just to hit a deadline didn’t feel fulfilling. So we’ve taken something of a step back.
Now, Vicky and I both live in Brooklyn, New York. We share a studio with a ceramicist (Dustin / Ceramics and Theory). We both work full-time to afford living in New York, but haven’t stopped making in any sense of the word. We’re trying to approach Life Wife Press and what we make more thoughtfully, scale back and work on a smaller level to be true to ourselves. Ultimately, that’s what we have to do in order to make the work ours–to make it fulfilling, relatable, and something we are proud of. We’re hoping to share more soon!
Please tell us about your art.
Over the last year, we’ve designed pins, patches, t-shirts, bags, hats, blankets, keychains, cards and other takeaways. We love the idea of someone buying something we made because it reminds them of someone. We’ve learned our relationship in nature is not unique to us. Everyone has someone in their lives they can share anything without judgement, someone who will go to that concert with you at the last minute, someone who always makes you a grilled cheese at 2am, maybe even someone who will draw you a picture of your ex getting eaten by a shark. These are true life companions, and we know they’re worth celebrating.
We’re inspired by so many things: ancient Greek sculpture, tattoo artists, 1950s interior design, fine artists (everyone from Rembrandt to Picasso to David Hockney), the Memphis art movement, plants, meta-internet jokes, emo bands we listened to in high school, jarring YouTube videos, and absolutely our own community.
Like any person, we love when people relate to what we’ve made. When we first started tabling at markets, people would look at our stuff and giggle. When someone sees something like our “Art is Hard” hat or “Ya Who Cares” pin and points to it, agrees with the sentiment, maybe calls over their friend to show it off–we just never thought that could happen. But it’s also appreciated when nobody takes it too seriously, because it doesn’t always come from a serious place.
Do you have any advice for other artists? Any lessons you wished you learned earlier?
Make the work you like and are proud of. Try and be the most genuine version of yourself, as much as your budget and ability to live on your work allows you. People who relate to your art will find you, and appreciate you because of who you are.
How or where can people see your work? How can people support your work?
So much of our work is in progress right now, but we share this progress on Instagram. We sell things online and at a few local shops around Boston, most notably Magpie in Somerville and the ICA’s museum shop.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://www.lifewifepress.com
- Email: lifewifepress@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lifewifepress/
Image Credit:
All photos by Hollis Johnson
Getting in touch: BostonVoyager is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
