In loving memory of Carol Brown
When you invest in a Soul Seat, you aren’t just investing in your own health journey, you’re also investing directly in a local community and an ecosystem of Midwestern artisans who contribute much more than just their craft. We recently lost one of the artisans who helped us define the quality and the vision of Ikaria Design from the very early days. If you own a custom Soul Seat from before 2021, there’s a good chance it was upholstered by Carol. Particularly one of our early Pendleton wool models.
Carol died recently from complications of a brain aneurysm and subsequent strokes. She was surrounded by loads of friends and family. I was able to spend some time in vigil with her and got to know one of her sisters. Carol’s artwork was well known around Columbia, and she often collaborated on monumental works of art for our Roots n’ Blues n’ BBQ music festival and True/False independent film festival. Carol was working on a piece to be featured at this year’s True/False when she fell ill. Her sister found the nearly finished work and completed it in time for the festival.
Carol’s expertise was in drapes, interiors, and some upholstery, but she liked the goal of our projects so well that she was willing to take them on. She was instrumental in figuring out the structure of our first slip covers and educating me about finding the right fabric suppliers.
Carol was part of many communities and businesses. I’m reminded of her every day as I use a hand-felted rug from the Curly Eye Alpaca farm she co-founded. She also co-founded our local Boone County Community Bail Fund. They have kept many local people out of jail and in their jobs when the legal system lands disproportionately heavy on them simply for being poor. On many a trip to Carol’s shop dropping off materials and picking up finished Soul Seats, there would be a new story of the latest shenanigans the Bail Bond profiteers were up to to try and shut down the Bail Fund. Thankfully, it’s still going strong.
Carol was always doing some sort of research connected with the organizations she worked with. One project was on the roots of local white generational wealth connected to slavery. She had created maps that showed how many names of streets, parks, and campus buildings were slave owning families. One of the many quilts that graced her shop was an art piece documenting the history of lynching in Missouri. Each of the many buttons sewn into a quilted map of Missouri documents a known lynching. I’ll always remember the sparkle in her eye as she recounted adding this quilt to the local quilter’s guild show. They tried to claim it was too edgy to hang among the traditional quilts. But she prevailed, because quilts have always been historical documents.
Visiting her shop was always an inspiring reminder that the work of creatives (like most of our customers) has always been integral to positive social change. Carol was a living embodiment of the principles our company strives to live out - that our core values and our daily work can support each other in dynamic and healthy alignment.
