The Women of Wise Women Ink!

Wise Women Ink, LLC is a small publishing company comprised of myself, Lani Phillips and my creative soul sister/business partner, Melinda Field. Here is a bit about how we came to be...


Melinda was turning 55 and was looking for the answers we so often ask, “Who am I now, and where do I fit in the world?” Her five children were leaving the nest, and Melinda had a lot of unanswered questions about the journey into the second half of her life. The more research she did, the answers kept coming up short. So she decided to create a tool that women could use on a daily basis that would give them archetypes to emulate through imagery and words of wisdom they could absorb and relate to. She was referred to me, because she had heard that I loved working outside of the box, so we merged our creative talents together and lo and behold, a partnership was born. As the project took flight I began photographing women between the ages of fifty and one hundred, ordinary women with extraordinary lives. Melinda worked on appropriate subjects that were relevant to women moving into the second half of their lives. She wrote the backs of the cards with love and careful forethought, which really showed in the finished cards. We did not know where this would take us, neither of us had experience with publishing a wisdom deck, so it was a lot of blind folded cliff diving, and hours on the Internet, emailing empowering websites, and looking for the right people to print this deck.

In February 2005 we went to press, printing only 2000 decks, using our own savings, we knew we were taking a big risk, but we also knew in our hearts, this was the right thing to do. The most amazing memory was on a sunny afternoon in early February, we had all been to lunch, we came back into my gallery and my assistant said there was a little gift for us from far away. After three years of working so hard on this project, it was no longer staring out at us from my computer, but in the form of a little black box’

It was the most amazing feeling that passed through us, a tangible creation was before us, and we all sat there and cried as we marveled at the finished product.

After the decks arrived at the end of February, within 2 months we had run out, we did the “out on the limb thing” again, and reprinted 10,000 more, and thank the powers that be, and women all around the globe they continue to sell everyday.

After getting the Crone up and running we began to work on the Journey of the Maiden, now titled “The Journey” we realized how desperately young women needed inspiration and guidance, this deck took us about a year to bring to press, we received our first Maiden deck August 1st of this year, and thus far they are finding their way out there in the world.

We completed the printing of Wonder of the Mother in October of 2007 and it has been well received as well.

In the interim we have been filming a documentary about the Wisdom of the Crone, and the women in the deck, at this point everything is still in the works. We have made it our mission to champion women in all stages of life.

First and foremost, we are mothers, because at the end of the day, it is our families that we are most thankful for. They inspire us and make us really want to care for ourselves so we can in turn care for them in the best ways and means possible. Being given the gift of artistry has allowed us to help other women of all ages around the world. We could not have asked for a more incredibly, amazing life!!!