TJ

The first time we met was in 2013. It was the beginning of our Sophomore year in college, after we had both been accepted into the Studio Arts program. Little did we know that our Freshman year we had lived in the same dorm building & on the same floor, but had surprisingly never met.

We had class together everyday so we were around each other a lot without even realizing it. After a few weeks of classes and group projects, we started gravitating towards one another and eventually became inseperable. Our lives quickly became intertwined. For us, college was essentially staying up late to finishing art projects or staying up late with our friends to party and meet new people. We made some of our best memories at the ISU Design college.

Taylor gifted Jake a puppy, Christmas 2014. We all know him as Indie now. <3

In the fall of 2015 we were given the opportunity of a lifetime to travel to Italy and live in Rome for 4 months. It was around this time we figured out that we were destined to make art together. Our painting styles mimicked each other’s and it seemed as though anything one of us could not do, the other one could. Painting together has been extremely rewarding because we get to see pieces come to life right in front of our eyes. This early stage of working together progressed into what you see us making today.

In 2016 we were both finishing up our degrees and decided to work at Camp Hantesa for the Summer. Taylor grew up going to and working at this camp, so it was an amazing feeling to welcome Jake into our ‘camp bubble’ as we call it. Our camp names are Miss Venus & Mr. Bones, so you may hear people refer to us as this. This was the Summer that really convinced us what the next stage of our lives needed to be!

In 2018 we lived out Tay’s Jeep and traveled to the Pacific Northwest to see if it was somewhere we could potentially live. This ended up becoming a 3 month long road trip down the West coast to see the sights, old friends, and to again see where we may want to settle down. We ended up in San Diego, and decided to drive to New Orleans for Halloween. Driving down the west coast & through the southwest just proved to us that we in fact did not want to move so far away from Iowa. It was quite obvious the whole time that we wanted to live in Colorado. Fun fact: we had driven to Colorado 13 times the year before we actually moved here.

We finally decided to make the move! Gypsum, Colorado became our home on Feb 13th 2019. We began working at and running a little art studio. Teaching kids & adult classes, making pottery, coloring books and countless paintings. Vail Valley grew on us quickly as we watched the winter wonderland turn into a hot desert paradise in the summertime. Although living so far away from our families is hard, we couldn’t imagine our lives without these views everyday.

The day after Tay’s birthday in 2021, Jake popped the question. We were on a roadtrip to Glacier NP, Yellowstone NP and the Grand Tetons. We had stopped in Jackson Hole for the night and gotten a very nice hotel room, which should have tipped Taylor off because we usually sleep in a bed we made in our 4runner. Around midnight, Jake asked Taylor to spend her life with him (which wasn’t even a question at this point) but of course she said yes.

Our future plans are to buy a home, travel to many many more countries, and come home more often to see you all. From the bottom of our hearts, we thank you for reading!