Good afternoon friends.

This post is inspired by @osm0sis's posts sharing her great grandfather's works of art. She encouraged me to share some art of my (Wren's) grandmother and talk a bit about her life and empowering journey!

I'll start off by saying we're home!

And it feels good to be here. A little stressful and hectic arriving home to water leaking on the bed from the cupola or an overwhelming amount of greens in the high tunnel (I know, homesteading problems, right?!) or the strong smell of urea from the cat litterbox, but we're home! and the signs of spring are everywhere. More on that to come; I want to share all of the fresh shoots and unfurling leaves on the homestead as April approaches in another post.

Rotey & her mother, Neva (Don't they kind of look like dolls?! lol!)

When I saw @osm0sis's posts, I thought of the sketches of my grandmother my Aunt had given to me sometime ago. Some of you will remember my grandmother from a post a did about a month ago detailing her love of roses and how that influenced my life (hint: I planted a bunch of roses on the homestead!). I love gathering things from family members to incorporate into my life; it's my way of embedding their memory and promoting their legacy that they can live on through.

Grandma Rotey in her youth

My grandma Rotey also owned a Fashionable Clothing Boutique

And this is the story that I'll briefly go into as I share a short account of her youth up until when she started sketching, creating ads, and hustling in the clothing business.

Rotey’s Boutique

Sketch done by Rotey for her shop, Rotey’s Boutique

Image of Rotey’s ad in the newspaper; all self-drawn

Early Life

Synchronistically enough, my grandmother's early life started in Kansas and she often traveled down to the Ozarks, a unique mountain range in Missouri/Arkansas (where I now reside), to hang out with her friends at summer camp and go on travels.

Rotey with friends in the Ozarks

Growing up in Kansas

It's interesting to think of her in these waterways and visiting towns near me. Looking through her photos, we also get a feel for life growing up in Kansas. Perhaps boring and something she wanted to get away from, but full of a mix of characters right before the war. We see "farmboys turned soldiers" and know that this had an effect on her.

She became a pinup.

This continued into her later years, the drive for beauty & relishing in a fantastic & glamorous lifestyle.

And soon she could sell the fashion to others

Opening Rotey’s Boutique

Location

She opened Rotey's Boutique just outside of Los Angeles, California in a town called Pasadena.

It has since grown a lot, but I've heard when she first moved there is was a place for a lot of bohemian souls to gather. Having lived at her house before she died while studying massage therapy, I got an intimate look at the town as it now stands and got to walk the streets, smell the flowers and live near the architecture that shaped so much of my grandmother's later years.

Photo of Rotey in Newspaper

Rotey lived out loud and for that she is an example of us all to believe in ourselves and step out to dare to live our dreams.

In a time when not many women started their own businesses, yet alone succeeded greatly as she ultimately did, she made all of her own images for the newspaper and advertising. She also hand-crafted images around her shop on tags, gift certificates and more.

Gift Certificate

A look behind the scenes.

So what was it like for a woman in the 70s, 80s and 90s to create her own business in an up and coming area?

I have heard some stories through the family grapevine, but a lot remains unknown. What I do have is a large box of newspaper clippings, sketches and saved clips from my Aunt. As I pour through it, I can only imagine...

It appears she copied much of the images into sketches or at least took inspiration and practiced drawing the images she liked. She practiced sketching models, jewelry and clothing to later incorporate it into her advertising and logos.

Her sketches are immaculate and she collected images of watches, jewelry, and clothing that she liked.

Her models were a true pleasure to see:

The Running Set

Smug

When I was growing up, she’d write me Christmas cards with similar images found in her advertisements and it makes me smile to this day.

Detail

Overview

She was featured in the newspaper often

It was super fun to look through the clippings saved by my Aunt while I was at my parents’ house this last week.

Pretty incredible that she drew all of her ads!!

Sale

It's a legacy that lives on after her death (on my birthday a few years ago) that inspires me to this day to continue my independent, creative, entrepreneurial spirit. She always said that Can't isn't a word in our vocabulary and she was living proof of this!!

Ancestral Inspiration | Her Art & Business: Lessons in Empowerment from my Grandma