Thinking Flowers
Thinking beautiful has been a mantra that has served Lauren Craig well throughout herlife.
And the positive thoughts have blossomed into an enterprising business supplyingcreative flower displays and installations to companies, events and privateclients.
The 27-year-old has produced stunning creative pieces for the Tate Modern, the House of Commons, the British Library and her thought-provoking work has graced exhibitions and events around the UK.
But with nature's beauty comes a crucial campaign for environmental sustainability andfairness for the flower industry that is peppered with problems from the lack of UK grown flowers, transport costs and CO2 emissions to exploitation of farmers in Africa.
"I want people to enjoy the flowers but also to think about where they came from, how they got there and not to view them as a disposable commodity," says Lauren (pictured right)."I've started a green waste disposal scheme as well to educate people about what happens to the flowers after the event.
"I also make sure that the flowers go somewhere else and are enjoyed again and for as long as possible. It would be terrible to simply throw them away after a day.
"Setting upThinking Flowers? has given me an understanding that business can be a way of creating an ethical ripple and getting people to think both about the beauty of a flower and beyond."
Lauren is using Thinking Flowers? as a business model to champion the cause of farmers in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania that supply the bulk of Europe's cut flowers via the industry's trading capital Amsterdam and to support British farming.
"There are huge issues about sustainability and exploitation," she adds. "I didn't know where flowers came from before I researched it so there is a mountain to climb in terms of awareness."
Lauren, who has a Masters Degree in Enterprise and Management for Creative Arts and PostGraduate qualifications in floral design and enterprise, is committed to the cause of natural beauty.
But, as she was growing up in south-west London,there were times when it was difficult to see anything other than a beastly future. She was brought up in a single parent family with strong Jamaican principles but her progress at her final school was hampered by dyslexia.
"I was always in trouble. I couldn't stand bullies and couldn't let things go when I saw someone being picked on which meant I got into fights," says Lauren. "I found school difficult because of severe dyslexia. I could grasp the conceptsand understand what was being taught but I struggled with writing it down in the time constraints. That was very frustrating and sort of disconnected me from traditional learning.
"Things deteriorated in my street life that affected school and I was alwayschallenging authority. I was a handful."
But Lauren still managed to put in a massive effort to get 12 GCSEs and entry to a college course where, sadly, the pattern of disaffection returned. Her one chance seemed to lie in her fascination with the colours and wonder of nature.
"We were considering a move to Canadawhen I was a seven-year-old and I remember visiting Niagara Falls. It was overwhelming," she adds. "My mum was asking why I had tears in my eyes. It was a profound moment -the beauty and power of nature.
"I was also lucky that we always lived in areas with trees. I have memories of observing trees, collecting flowers and there was always something growing in milk bottles around the house."
But the feelings were overwhelmed by the street culture that was drawing teenage Lauren into a lethal environment. The lawless nature of dissent and disengaged youth hit home with savage intent. A cousin was murdered closely followed by her best friend's brother.
Lauren was resourceful enough to secure a place on a BA marketing and advertising course but her association with groups where petty squabbles around identity and status sparked into violence left her disillusioned with society.
"I felt abandoned by the human race as I knew it and realised I didn't understand people any more," she says. "But nature showed me life was worth more than being mindless, empty, status-driven and desiring only the latest designer clothes.
"I saw so many bad things and had to break away from it. You just get de-sensitised by the behaviour and come to accept it as a norm. The frightening thing was that this violence and emptiness could ever be considered normal. But it is still for so many a way of life."
Lauren's escape came in a keen interest in photography and she began to chronicle the lives and deaths of families caught up in gang culture. The searing portraits were part of her emergence and not for public exhibition. They were given to the families as a mark that not all of society was dismissive of their loss.After doing this for eight years, she is now incorporating a charity ThinkingImages?
"I want it to help the increasing numbers who lose out due to mis-education, a lack ofchoice and having no place to heal negative traumatic experiences," she adds."I want to offer my way of seeing to encourage others to seek alternative futures."
The photography fuelled her ‘obsession with the circle of life' and the flower design course made much more sense than a career in advertising. With her awakening, Thinking Flowers? was nurtured to life.
"It is wonderful to be able to create something beautiful with flowers but I also feel a sense of responsibility to sharing my knowledge and helping bring about change," says Lauren. "I want to continue to build the Thinking? entity as a collaborative vehicle that promotes global equity and the social enterprise movement."