Nicole Ko Nicole Ko

Dark and Divine

My work lately has been inspired again, by the cosmos. Creating flowers that flicker, spin and peel apart like nebulas and feel like heat. I also got to visit an eclipse inspired installation at ARTECHOUSE NYC to stir my imagination.

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Nicole Ko Nicole Ko

Moody and Serene

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Design aesthetic still hovering between minimalism and maximalism. Garden roses, sweetpeas, narcissus, daffodils, spirea and jasmine vine sifting gently like powdery snow. Details from flowers I arranged for Julia and Seth’s reception

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Nicole Ko Nicole Ko

e p h e m e r a | Origins

The name ephemera is a nod to the word’s origin. Meaning something that is short lived, lasting only for one day. Fleeting beauty like the Autumn leaves falling. Or perhaps your Daughter’s Wedding Night when everyone she has ever loved has gathered to celebrate from the far corners of the world and may never be in the same room again.

But the name also takes root in a quote I read from the work of Carl Jung in my early twenties. When I first encountered the word ephemeral.

“Life has always seemed to me like a plant that lives on its rhizome. Its true life is invisible, hidden in the rhizome. The part that appears above ground lasts only a single summer. Then it withers away—an ephemeral apparition. When we think of the unending growth and decay of life and civilizations, we cannot escape the impression of absolute nullity. Yet I have never lost a sense of something that lives and endures underneath the eternal flux. What we see is the blossom, which passes. The rhizome remains.” - Carl Jung

I get a great sense of optimism from that quote and that optimism is what has led me to rise to the challenge to create a company. Ephemera began much like the way many things do. I put one foot ahead of the other and began my journey with flowers shortly after moving to New York City and looking for inspiration in the Botanical Gardens. Months passed and I watched new flowers come into bloom eagerly anticipating the next seasons. I got this wild idea I needed to work with flowers. After getting hired at flower shop in Manhattan’s West Village and eventually while rising into Management I began to create a body of work that felt so intimately me. E P H E M E R A was born. That body of work gained interest among my peers and I began to collaborate with photographers in editorials, or music videos. And began to create floral installations for displays for art galleries in Lower Manhattan and Williamsburg.

Now I bring that experience to you. So that we can dream up something big together. And trust despite the short shelf-life of flowers I will work passionately to curate an unforgettable experience that will endure in the hearts of loved ones.

Thank you for reading my tale.

Warmest regards,

Nicole

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Nicole Ko Nicole Ko

Paris

I didn’t expect to love Paris, because it was exactly the thing you were expected to do. Your whole life you grow up with a sort of romanticized version of a place in your head. It’s an acceptable notion now having experienced it. They sky is blue. Paris is beautiful. I didn’t get as lost here as I wanted but I did accidentally drop a baguette on the grounds of the skeleton lined catacombs immediately sending my hair to stand straight up on my neck. I’ve never had more sumptuous food. And naturally I felt a great admiration for a city that identifies so closely with art. Alas.

These are all the things you would expect me to write.

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