Artist Highlight: Tara W. "Freckled Floral"
A Bay Area native currently resides in Hayward with her husband. Six years ago, Tara owned a rental business, although the business was not her passion, she offered floral design within the company. Eventually she left the business and became more intentional about learning as much as she could about floral design. After practicing floral design and finding her path, Tara opened Redwood Floral in the fall of 2015. “The second I opened up my business and started designing for others, the flood gates opened, and everyone was so interested and supportive, so it was just a really cool confirmation.” When it comes to her art, Tara enjoys the constant changes of the seasons and flowers along with the freedom of floral design, “there’s really no rules to it." She describes her process as, “therapeutic,” and adds, “I love that I get to bless others with it.” A large amount of Tara’s work is for weddings, which she acknowledges, “It’s something that makes a lot of people happy, so I really like that.” Tara’s creative process is humbling and intentional. She begins each design with an earnest prayer and frequently has music on in the background as she creates, “I usually have some kind of candle burning and I just like to have all my senses there in what I’m doing.” Tara has been able to connect with community through her art. Given the personal nature of floral design, she finds opportunities to get to know her clients, sometimes for an entire year prior to creating their design. “I’m getting to know their families usually, who their marrying, what their likes are, what they do for a living, it helps me really design an arrangement that caters to that person.” Her clientele stretches from San Francisco all the way to Napa. Regarding the Eden area, Tara states, “I wouldn’t say there’s a ton of artists in this area...or maybe there are, and I just haven’t been exposed to them.” She notes how often artists are drawn to San Francisco and areas of co-working spaces and collaboration, a quality she finds that the Eden area lacks. Tara recognizes the universal struggle of the artists and their ability to support one another in their creative pursuits and desire to support themselves and their families. Although the struggle to sustain as an artist may be unspoken at times, Tara knows it is ever-present. She looks forward to building relationships where support and collaboration can grow.
