Wishing Flower Press & Bindery roots itself in a reverence for the botanical
Kimberly Obee uses a vintage printing press in her studio and keeps a sketchbook with her in the wild.
Photo by Rachel Pressley
As a kid in southern New Hampshire, printmaker and book artist Kimberly Obee wished upon fluffy dandelion tufts — and she made sure her wishes really meant something.
“I just loved finding those silvery-white puffs and taking as big of a breath as I could to blow all the seeds off in a single gust,” says Obee.
Obee’s 3D creations are the result of close botanical study, such as her appreciation of the incredibly resilient dandelion.
Photo by Rachel Pressley
Growing up, she referred to the plant as a “wishing flower” with the conviction it could make her dreams come true. It wasn’t until she was much older that she realized the fuzz balls came from an invasive weed. But the more she researched dandelions — a hardy perennial that can lay dormant in the soil for up to nine years before germinating — the more she came to believe that the plant truly does have special powers.
“The resilience and will-to-live of the dandelion intrigued and inspired me. This was really the jumping-off point for the botanical themes so common in my current work,” says Obee, whose fascination with flora now blooms at Wishing Flower Press & Bindery, her boutique letterpress.
Photo by Rachel Pressley
Situated in Black Mountain, the workspace is where Obee uses her 100-year-old Chandler & Price platen press to create everything from Black-eyed Susan stationery to white-clover lithographs. Save for a few cheeky greeting cards emblazoned with “no drama llamas” and a “sweet orange cat who smiles even in the rain,” everything is lush and leafy — just the way Obee likes it.
“While I am initially drawn to flowers for their beauty, it’s also important to me that I learn about them,” says Obee. “I want to know: Are they edible? What are their medicinal uses? Growing habits and patterns? Harvesting techniques?”
Obee’s prints also explore her own personal connections to the plant. You’ll find plenty of daisies in her work because her mother grows Shastas and Black-eyed Susans. There are also bunches of hydrangeas because Obee is “partial to the color blue” and a field’s worth of goldenrod because she loves to “see those yellow blooms at the end of summer.”
Despite her preoccupation with plants, Obee has no formal botany background. Instead, she studied at Hartford Art School in Connecticut, where she unintentionally discovered printmaking while ticking off graduation requirements.
“I signed up for an etching class, quite unaware of what that class was going to entail,” says Obee. “I quickly realized that at the core of printmaking is drawing, so I connected to it right away.”
After graduating in 2014, Obee moved to Asheville to be a studio assistant to sculptural book artist Daniel Essig. In 2017, she met her soon-to-be husband, Perry. A year after that, the two moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico, so that Perry — a fellow printmaker — could complete the Tamarind Printer Training Program. Then, the following year, Obee started her MFA in Book Arts at the University of Iowa Center for the Book.
In the time since, the couple has put down firm roots in Western North Carolina. Perry runs Obee Editions, a collaborative printmaking shop. Meanwhile, Obee produces personalized stationery and broadsides.
According to Obee, most of her projects begin with a drawing in her sketchbook, which she keeps on hand at all times. “The images in my sketchbooks are largely landscapes of places I’ve been, small studies of plants, portraits of family — or sometimes strangers at coffee shops — and a lot of to-do lists.”
Later, when she’s back in the studio, her sketchbook is fertile ground for inspiration. A drawing of a blush-pink tulip may become a carved linoleum print, while a prickly-pear cactus scribble becomes a stone lithograph.
Obee also makes “thaumatropes,” which in Greek translates to “wonder-turners.”
“They are an optical-illusion paper toy that illustrates the phenomenon of retinal persistence,” she explains on her website. “As the disk spins on strings between the fingers, the images on either side remain on the retina for a short time, allowing both images to be seen simultaneously as a complete image.”
Dandelions are like thaumatropes in that way: There’s more to them than meets the eye. While most see the plant as a nuisance, Obee knows the truth.
“They have a resilience to them that can’t be tamed,” she says. “They just do their own thing and take up the space they need.”
They’ve also been known to grant a wish or two, should you believe.
Wishing Flower Press & Bindery, 104 Eastside Drive, Unit 190, Black Mountain, wishingflowerpress.com, kimberlyobee.com. Stationery stockists include Asheville Print Studio + Gallery (191 Lyman St., Studio 108, River Arts District, Asheville, ashevilleprintstudio.com); Signs for Hope (379 Old Charlotte Hwy. A, Fairview); and Mica Gallery (37 North Mitchell Ave., Bakersville, micagallerync.com). Obee will host an advanced book-repair workshop on Saturday, Sept. 7, 10am-3pm, cost is $200. For more information, e-mail info@wishingflowerpress.com or follow Wishing Flower Press on Instagram @wishingflowerpress.