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Griffin Gowdy

@griffingowdy

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Artist & plant enthusiast. Southern Louisiana raised, KC based.

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Mardi Gras magic 🪄 I think New Orleans really knew we needed this year- it felt a little extra special and I wouldn’t have had it any other way. Mardi Gras is truly my favorite week of every year. It’s like a warm hug, a kiss from the sun, and a using every Lisa frank sticker on one journal. I don’t know how else to explain the joy I feel every year I am blessed to participate. Mardi Gras is about shaking off your chains, blowing off a lil steam, somehow never linking up with the people you’re trying to while simultaneously running into everyone you’ve ever known. Its dancing in the street covered in glitter, some you put there on purpose, and some from the crafting you’ve been doing for 8 hours straight. It’s making new “best friends” with the stranger you’re standing next to on the parade route. It’s trading shoes with a stranger because she needs rhinestones and you have them- no exchanging numbers, only “I’ll meet you back here tomorrow”. It’s passing out Jell-O shots to all your new “best friends” and pouring a lil prosseco in their cup for good measure. And it’s somehow also marching to the river and dumping ashes of loved ones, looking back on the levee at all your new “best friends” standing and holding space for you as you sob. It’s the best example of community I could ever imagine and we get to look good while we do it. I wouldn’t trade my Mardi week for anything in the world, and I hope one day you get to experience it too. #mardigras2026⚜️💜💚💛⚜️ taken in New Orleans, Louisiana by @griffingowdy

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8 months ago

TMW you impulsively fly to New Orleans for the weekend to catch glass beads and celebrate @joelleferrara birthday weekend ❤️ by @griffingowdy

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9 months ago

2025 took so much from me, however, my creativity went into full bloom. Here’s to another year with good friends and making beautiful things ❤️ by @griffingowdy

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9 months ago

Today we laid Mikes mom, Mary, to rest after a 17 year battle with breast cancer. She passed peacefully at the end of May with all of us surrounding her. She was tough as nails right up to the end and fought like hell, harder than most people I know. Born in the middle of nowhere Nebraska, she graduated as the first woman in Kansas with a computer science degree, worked in corporate America, adopted three children and battled metastatic cancer. She was devoted to her husband, children and career. The word to describe Mary was tenacious. I am eternally grateful for the sacrifices she made for her family and for developments in cancer treatment/research and am relieved her suffering has ended. I have lost 2 people to metastatic breast cancer in less 3 years and hope we will find an end to this disease at some point in my life. F**k cancer. taken in Leavenworth National Cemetery by @griffingowdy

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a year ago

Yesterday was Mikes birthday. I could say a lot, but I’ll keep it short. Happy birthday Mike. I fell in love with you many moons ago because of your kindness and gentleness and those remain some of my favorite qualities about you. Your gentility has been a balm on my soul all these years. Here’s to all the rest we have left ❤️ taken in Kansas City, Missouri by @griffingowdy

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2 years ago

Dolce was a very special dog. When I went thru a rough patch with my mental health in high school, my parents decided it would be a good idea to get me a dog. Dolce wasn’t even a dog I was interested in, but we decided to take her home as a “foster” for a weekend to give her break from the kennel. We had been volunteering at the shelter and had noticed she was brought back by the people who first adopted her and was an overall mess, she needed a break. Well, as fosters often do, she never went back. She was all sort of anxious when we got her. She had such severe separation anxiety I had to sleep with a light on with her kennel at eye level so she could see me. She had to take Prozac 😂 and she would shred her blankets if we left the house too long. This lasted for months. Thankfully she started to relax, once we noticed that she was too anxious to handle any sort of negative reinforcement, we found clicker training! She excelled! Truly one of the most intelligent dogs I’ve ever seen. Then (much to our behest later) we decided to take her thru a round of agility training. She also excelled at this! (What we didn’t realize at the time is we gave her the confidence and skills to become an absolute escape artist and mountain goat, willing to climb or jump on any surface that had food) 😂 She was sweet and loving to anyone except the pool bobber, or the person trying to clip her nails. She was determined, smart and HUNGRY. She was the cutest thing you’ve ever seen with her white and tan fur, pink patch right above her nose and docked tail. I’ve never seen another dog like her, and I doubt I ever will. She was incredibly soft, so much so that dad always called her a “bunny rabbit”. We would even jest that her fur was like velvet. She was incredibly special and I truly don’t think I will ever fill the space in my heart for her. One of the hardest things I ever did was leaving her when we moved to Kansas. We decided after a decade with my parents dog, speck, who we lost earlier this year, it would be best to keep them together. We all loved her incredibly much and our family will grieve her for many months to come. I love you my lil mountain goat. 🪽 taken in Baton Rouge, Louisiana by @griffingowdy

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2 years ago

Mike finally nailed this wild child down. 💍 taken in John's Greenhouse by @griffingowdy

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2 years ago

One hundred percent absolute best week of my year, every year. Mardi Gras is so sacred 💚 #mardigras #mardiparty taken in St Charles Parade Route by @griffingowdy

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3 years ago

HNY 🖤 taken in Baton Rouge, Louisiana by @griffingowdy

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3 years ago

Happy birthday Mike. by @griffingowdy

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3 years ago

Mike and I had a fantastic weekend @northernclaycenter for #americanpotteryfestival @mikecervpottery was able to demo with @chriscookskilns and we all became quick friends. 💖We are so tired but super grateful to spend a long weekend with some new and old friends, my heart is so full!! ✨ taken in Minneapolis, Minnesota by @griffingowdy

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3 years ago

“We found a mass”. Four words you NEVER want to hear in reference to your brain. Well, really any part of your body, but especially your brain. My 26th birthday came and went last month with little celebration considering the news I was expecting. I had been waiting 5 weeks to get an MRI to confirm what my doctor suspected, something called a “Pituitary Adenoma”. Let me back up, I’ve been sick for a while- several years now. After college I was experiencing some pretty severe fatigue I assumed it was burnout from a grueling senior year and tried to sleep it off. Well, 10 months later we were in the thick of a pandemic and staying home. I assumed I was just depressed and stressed. I brought it up to some of my doctors and they concurred, nothing to be worried about. The symptoms persisted. Halfway thru 2021 Mike and I moved to Kansas City and that’s when things kicked into high gear. I didn’t have insurance for a while so definitely no doctor for me. Spring 2022 I was finally able to secure some insurance thru the ACA (thank god) and was able to find a physician I thought would be a good fit. She listened to me intently and then told me it definitely sounded like something was off and she would run some pretty intensive labs. Of course, they all came back normal. She informed me that this was now outside of her scope of practice and I would need to see a specialist. To be honest, I wasn’t very sure where to start. “But WHICH specialist?” After about 4 months of research and thought I decided I wanted to pursue a hormone specialist because that seemed to be a good starting place considering my symptoms. *Severe* fatigue, headaches, wildly irregular cycles with pain so severe it could make me pass out or throw up, rapid weigh gain with no lifestyle changes. (Let me be clear that weigh is not a necessary directly correlated with health. My rapid weight gain was uncharacteristic for me which can be a sign of a hormonal imbalance). I found a specialist out of just a few in the area and got on her 7 month waiting list. And that brings us to April… by @griffingowdy

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3 years ago