Meet Karen Woodward Sarrow of Imagi.Life Shop LA in Mid-Wilshire

Today we’d like to introduce you to Karen Woodward Sarrow.

Karen, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I’m an artist and I love people. I’ve gone in and out of doing private and public art, popular and political art for years… I created murals in homes, businesses and at schools L.A. in 2012, then developed graphic design clients when I moved to New Jersey that year. We moved back to L.A. in June, 2016, and I started a studio in South Korea Town where I developed a series of paintings for a show at TAG Gallery in January called Blue Earth. It is about environmental and social justice concerns. I joined the Board at TAG Gallery, an artists’ collective, and became the Admissions Chair. TAG Gallery moved from Bergamot Station to Gallery Row in June. In late summer, TAG Artists were offered studio rentals. When no one else was interested, I thought one studio on Wilshire could be a way to provide people with environmentally friendly products. Products that I often look for as gifts. That is how Imagi.Life was conceived, and we’re slowly finding well-developed vendors that share the same values that we do, like Beeswrap. Beeswrap replaces plastic wrap and sandwich bags. I recently read the Leap Manifesto, which considers art-making a very green product, so we sell prints and watercolors, and hand-made silver jewelry and wooden boxes by Dehope Design. We also incorporate humanistic and community traditions into our products, very much so with the art, but also with the Republic of Tea, and the daily ceremony of sharing tea with friends, family and colleagues. We had a soft opening September 9 and we’ve rearranged the shop several times! We are an art shop at heart, and its’ design keeps evolving and expanding.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
It has been stressful and a lot of work, and satisfying. I’m normally pretty laid back, and I was very Type-A in the beginning of this project with lots of energy. It got more and more challenging to keep up the energy close to opening. My husband and I are doing this together, but he has a full-time job so a lot of the details are mine during the week. He is a great salesman and he and our jewelry designer Michelle Tetreault completely opened and closed the shop on September 9th! It was a great night with many sales and support from family and friends. I was exhausted and still trying to print informational flyers for customers that night.

My husband and I only have had about two disagreements, and they are both very funny to us. One involves the purpose of a spreadsheet budget: does it include goals? And the other involves when to pull out the “Have you read our mission statement?” question, which is a playful joke with us now.  It’s a constant challenge to find renewable products, and friends are even helping us reach that goal by checking our labels!  Jonathan and I both believe in, and are excited about what we’re doing, and how it’s growing.

It took a month, and long nights to get the shop on-line, and I haven’t had much time to paint. I have a painting project due this Monday so I hope to be able to turn to that in the evenings. I also reserve Mondays, when the gallery and shop is closed, for painting. This school year, our family friend, Yolanda Karsoyan, started taking care of our kids after school on Tuesdays – Fridays, which allows me to work in the afternoons until 5; that is the most productive working time that I’ve had in years.

Meeting Michelle Tetreault, and her mother Elizabeth, was an unexpected excitement for us, and we have enjoyed getting to know her family, and Dehope Design’s beautiful and unique creations. I couldn’t have found a better line of jewelry to represent, and they found us!

Please tell us about Imagi.Life Shop LA.
We are an art shop. We specialize in art prints, silver jewelry, and sustainable products like Beeswrap which replaces fossil-fuel produced plastic wrap. We have a lot of gluten-free snacks, and organic tea for sale. We stock reusable glass and aluminum bottles, positive and playful books, and we’ll be producing more cloth products to replace disposable ones.

I’m very proud when people get excited about replacing plastic with non-toxic products. It’s also fun to reach people on an emotional level with our art prints by our women artists, Roberta Sarrow Hyman, and Lori Hutchison, and with Dehope Design jewelry that is both meaningful and individual.

If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
The Toy store next door gave themselves two months to open, they open November 1. They have been in business in the neighborhood for years!

We are a new shop, and I had about three weeks to open, I didn’t want to delay it because I think I would have had a hard time pushing it forward, and I wanted to get feedback and launch our sustainable products quickly.

But next time, I’d give our selves at least two months to open a shop.

Contact Info:

• Address: 5458 Wilshire Blvd., Studio A
  Los Angeles, CA 90036
• Website: http://imagi.life
• Phone: 213.713.6643
• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/imagi_life_shop_la
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Imagilifeshopla-1958925724335812/
• Twitter: @sarrowstudio
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/imagi-life-shop-la-los-angeles-2

Image Credit:
Tisha Janigan
Roberta Hyman Sarrow
Jonathan Sarrow

Getting in touch: VoyageLA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.