Photo by Madison Twiddy.
Angel Morgan, a vendor at the Oxford Community Market, incorporates her love for flowers with her college degree by using her skills to promote a local florist business.
The farmer’s market recently made its monthly visit to the University of Mississippi campus to showcase vendors’ wares to passersby, giving students a chance to enjoy Morgan’s beautiful flowers and create their own bouquets.
Morgan, originally from Memphis, graduated last year from UM with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in imaging arts. Her booth at the campus market, Farmstead Florals, is owned by a local florist business.
“I’m at the flower farm called Farmstead Florals,” Morgan said. “We’re not even 10 minutes away from the University of Mississippi campus, headed out towards New Albany. The flower farm has been around for 10 years, and we do wholesale and sell at grocery stores locally. We also have a self-serve stand on the Square.”
Working with this business serves as an outlet for the skills that Morgan learned for her degree, which focused on creative and technical skills in photography, digital media, video and other lens-based and image-making practices. This has given her a professional eye in managing the flower booth, organizing floral designs commissioned for events and marketing for the flower farm.
“I would definitely say that I use my degree, especially with floral design and getting customers and marketing — the whole thing,” Morgan said. “My background in fine art really helps with planning and designing flowers for weddings and other special occasions.”
Morgan started working with Farmstead Florals while completing her undergraduate degree.
“This is my fourth season,” Morgan said. “It started when I was a sophomore in college. It was a summer job, and then that kind of progressed into doing more of designing behind-the-scenes stuff.”
She said that while working at the campus market, she gets to interact with different sorts of patrons than on typical market days.
“We get to interact with and hear stories from people in a little bit of a different way of campus and younger people, and they’re from all over,” Morgan said. “We get to see where they’re from, whether it be the South or another state.”
She said that integrating her passion for art and design into the work she does at the market is one of the best parts of her job there.
“My favorite part of being a vendor is designing and seeing what kind of color scheme and bouquets that people come up with,” Morgan said. “I really love when they interact with me to build one together. It’s just a fun way to spread creativity and brighten someone’s day.”
It is nostalgic for her to come back to campus as a vendor rather than a student, and she enjoys the days when the Oxford Community Market comes to Ole Miss.
“Honestly, I love it a lot because I have an appreciation for this kind of routine, and it brings back memories from going here,” Morgan said.
She recollected coming to Ole Miss as a child and finds being on campus now as a market vendor, and also a graduate of the school, to be a sort of full circle moment.
“My parents have always loved Ole Miss,” Morgan said. “I came here when I was little, and went to football games. So, I think this will always be like some sort of home — no matter where I end up.”
