Inge Löök is a Finnish illustrator and gardener who is perhaps best known for her “merry aunties” character postcards – an enduring favorite of postcrossers. She was previously featured on the blog over 10 years ago, and was kind enough to make time for an email interview with Clarisse (aka CStar9), for her series of conversations with illustrators and postcard makers. Enjoy!
- Please tell us about your studio.
-
The place where I do my drawings is not very large; a table, a chair and the rest does not require much space. I prefer an enclosed small space where my thoughts stay together and do not wander away into other spaces. The house where I live is also small and the purpose of the house is solely to live in it. The nature outside is eternal and if I start to feel cramped I only need to open the door.
- You take special care to create postcard sets of your art. Why postcards?
-
The old-fashioned way of sending letters and postcards is beautiful. You get to hold and touch the same paper the sender has touched. It is a gift and a thoughtfulness that requires planning in a completely different way than electronic messages.
- For new ideas, what is the first step to getting an idea from your head to the page?
-
I do not use sketchbooks but I tend to use the back side of used photocopy sheets. Today I mainly draw postcards and if I get an idea I quickly note it down on any piece of paper with a few lines only so that I later remember how I envisage the theme for a new post card. An idea can emerge at any time, even in the middle of the night, and if so, in the morning I must swiftly note it to not forget it.
- Please tell us a bit more about the origins of the Aunties characters in your art.
-
My closest neighbor lives around 30 meters from me in a house as small as mine. We think along the same lines and are in daily contact. She is actually one of the aunties in my illustrations, and I am the other one. In fact, we’ve played out most of what happens in my illustrations of the aunties. We’ve had wine in a tree, cakes under the table, and what we haven’t done, we wish we could do. This includes sitting high up in a clock tower with dangling legs. We are old now but know exactly how it felt when we were small and searched for messages in bottles.
Nature seems to be almost its own character in your work. We are treated to many detailed scenes that are infused with such attention and care – gardens, forests, fields, barns. How does a sense of place inform your art?
-
Nature is everything. I’m interested in the little and the small. I often sit with a magnifying glass and study the details of, for instance, flowers or a feather. As I see it, the big and the large then is space which offers fantasy experiences because we are unable to go there. I’ve got equipment for bird watching, and it is not only birds I look at, but the environment as a whole.
- What is on the horizon for your art this year?
-
I’ve always had a hard time planning the future. The future has never really existed, but rather, it has merely appeared, which means that I have then had to face it as it appears.
Nature seems to be almost its own character in your work. We are treated to many detailed scenes that are infused with such attention and care – gardens, forests, fields, barns. How does a sense of place inform your art?
To learn more Inge Löök and her work, visit her website or check out her Instagram.
If you’ve made it all the way here to the last bit, here’s a little bonus: Clarisse has 4 Inge Löök postcards to send to 4 postcrossers. To participate in this mini-giveaway, leave a comment below and let us know what adventures you imagine yourself on with your best friend, that would be worthy of being featured on a postcard! 😊 Check back this time next week for the winners!
And the winners of this giveaway, as chosen by Paulo’s random number generator are… LisaMonsterken, ozpom, Nalara and Bossmare! Congratulations, and thank you for your enthusiastic participation!
218 comments so far
I love the Inge Look cards! I have been fortunate to receive many and am always excited when I spot a new one in the galleries or on someone's page.
As for fantasy adventures, I'd love to be able to fly like a bird, maybe on the back of a large bird. Maybe float down into a cozy nest hidden in the tallest branch of a tree.
Loved the interview!
My husband (who is my best friend) and I imagine the adventures that await us on a trip to the western U.S. this autumn. We're hopeful our adventures include spotting lots of wildlife - but not too closely! The Aunties postcards are wonderful!! I'd love to receive one someday via Postcrossing.
We make sausages on the fire. We clean the windows. We make preserves for the winter. We feed hungry birds.
I wish my friend and I could just enter a white fluffy cloud and float about while looking down to the earth and enjoying the silence and a glass of good wine (or a cup of tea).
I would love to have a dance party with my friend in warm summer rain. The music comes from a radio and we are surrounded by boring concrete in a city. But our dancing brings joy and color to the world and our hearts.
Thank you for the wonderful interview!
Ich bin7fache Oma,tolle gern mit den Kindern im Schrebergarten herum und kümmere mich um alte Leutchen,gehe gern spazieren und fahre sie bei jeden Wetter mit dem Rollstuhl in der Natur durch die Gegend,da sie keine Familie mehr haben.Das macht mich und die alten Damen sehr glücklich.
we still love to ride roller coasters.....
gaze at the night skies looking for ufos...
go to haunted houses ...sky dive...
i love the aunties postcards ....old but a young mind...still a child at heart..
always up for an adventure.
and i love the interview and love that it is you and your friend still enjoying life.
thank you for the great postcards
With my best friend, I would Love to spend Time at the beach and see whales.
I love how the aunties look so joyful - it makes me smile
Great interview! Always so interesting to hear the thoughts of artists on their work and life. I'd love to sandboard on the dunes of the Great Erg sand sea in Tunisia with my best friend!
I would love to see the aunties riding an old wooden roller coaster with their hands in the air! Or digging for clams at the beach… or eating lobster with their bare hands! 😎
Thanks for the old fashioned joys - love their mischievous ways - always places a smile on my face. I ask for these cards on my profile and have received so many - each one is a treasure. 😍
I think the adventures I would like to do with my bestie once I get old is travel the world and create mischief! Getting almost arrested types of things! Imagine two sweet old ladies doing crazy things! I can't wait!! (but can you imagine the aunties from these sets getting into the back of a cop car? too funny!)
Thank you for your interview. I like your cards very much and had never heard about the old ladies. But thanks to Postcrossing.... I love the cards with the ladies and their adventures just on a small piece of paper. I hope you can make them for many years (together with your neighbour). I guess you have a lot of fun to realise the card. Tips for a card are the animals that I love: cows, horses, guinea pigs and peacocks. Greetings or so we say: groetjes.
I always love receiving these cards! They bring me so much joy!
Oh the joy the Merry Aunties make my heart feel! I am with my life partner now, finally. Both of us are in our older years. We have found each other and have done some crazy things too- packed up two houses by ourselves, built lots of fencing around a new home in the country, got stuck out in the backcountry where we encountered wild horses! My hope, our hope, is to continue the adventure by camping in primitive areas in this beautiful world, climbing rock walls (me climbing, him holding the rope below) and floating down the river nearby in inner tubes. It is never too late for the antics of the young at heart!
I so love the 'old ladies' as I call them. I see myself in these cards as I myself am an old lady.
My husband loves them too & I have to wait for him to finish looking at them before I'm given my card.
I then take my time (and a magnifying glass) studying all the many details! I appreciate each detail & the beauty of both illustration & paper.
Great interview! Thank you.
I also have a good friend with whom I have occasional adventure. One girls‘ weekend we have planned is a waterslide weekend at a huge waterslide park just outside of Munich. I can imagine the Aunties in their one-piece bathing suits having a whale of a time amongst the palm trees, perhaps with an Aperol spritz as well — they are still „in“! Cheers!
I am finding the joy in exercise lately. I would like an adventure with my friend to see all the moves we can do and rejoice and also to see the moves we can't do and laugh at our attempts 😁😁. The fun we would have.............
I can see myself and my friend in a hot air balloon giving cookies to a flock of birds in the air with us. Climbing trees to sit with an owl, or river rafting with salmon, or just picnicing with the ants and grasshoppers.
Thanks for sharing your imagination with us!
I have not received one, but now hope to. I am an old lady, too! My best friend and I travel, we would like to see nature in your country.
I love cycling Long distances with an overninght stay in a tent. I like being in nature and enjoy oy all living things live. And your postcards Give a good mood and bring yoy.
My best friend and I are always surrounded by books just like the aunties!
We would visit the worlds most unique bookstores, libraries and ice cream shops!
I would love a hiking one through lush pine trees with my bestie
HI
Several years ago I received an Inge Look postcard from another member.
The postcard was to funny and great. I had to change my profile to include her postcards. Thanks to the other Postcrossers I now have around 50.
My all time favorite is the Aunties under an apple tree with one hitting a branch and the other with her purse open to catch the apples. Wish I had thought of it as a child when my brother and I used to steal apples from a neighbor orchard. We always seemed to get caught.
Enjoy the day!
Demaris
Hello, postcrossers! I would like to travel with my girlfriend! By famous sights of different cities and countries. That would be great!
I would love to go to the sea with my girlfriend, who lives far away from me. We would sit under umbrellas and chat until the sun went down, and then chat some more! Of course, there would be tropical drinks in our hands with a tiny but colorful paper umbrella sticking out of them! I'm going to work on making this vision come true!
Today my postcard with a photograph of the manhole cover of the city's water supply network was received. The easiest thing to do with such a cast-iron lid is to scrap it. We had such a history. You can also collect manhole covers from various cities of the country. I think this will be the heaviest collection. Maybe our aunts will become collectors of manhole covers?
I love postcards with aunts. There are several postcards with aunts in my collection. These postcards are in no way inferior to postcards with Norwegian forest trolls.
My sister is my best friend and we love to have adventures when she comes to visit. Whether it is a baseball game or watching fireworks we love to have fun.
The aunties might like a walker like me. I often dream of others, each with a walker. Maybe with the help of a walker I could get into the sea and swim:) I'd love that, Camilla
My friend and I would love to be so small we could dance amongst the wood nymphs, toadstools, and rabbits surrounded by flowers in the woods.
I am thrilled to have learned of Inge’s postcards and will purchase some to send from my new home address this coming month!
I'd love to have a picnic with my best friend on a little boat while dangling our feet in the water and watching the birds and fish around us. Could be in spring, summer or autumn. :) cold water on your feet is always refreshing.
Uau!! Adoraria ter os postais dela!
My best friend and I would dress up as scuba divers and enjoy the underwater scenery.
My best friend and I would have drinks in the garden, with the cucumber and pole bean vines swaying overhead.
I will go with my friend in a small rowboatointo her little pond and we will reach over the side of the boat to pet the pond fish.
hope i'm still as healthy & cheerful as two grannies, in my 70-80s..
(how old are them actually.. ?)
but i never done some of their activities either, it always summer in Indonesia 😃
I love Inge's cards! I was so lucky too just received my first one from a postcrossrt.
The adventure woild be a picnic on a magic carpet ride
The Aunties are my favorites! My adventure would be riding the ski lift to the top of a mountain in summer with wildflowers and gentle breezes and a few goats or sheep enjoying the beauty,too!
Wow! Another brilliant addition to the blog, I enjoyed this read so much and now another new artist and amazing lady to follow.
If I could envision an adventure with my best friend, it would be to dance among the stars, in technicolor dream coats, creating a rainbow of colors. Fly to the moon and drink red wine and eat French cheese. Beautiful. Or a trip to heaven for one last hug with loved ones.
I love the Aunties because I have a sister who is also my best friend, and I like to imagine the two of us together doing everything they do!
So for a new and different adventure we would have a tea and - slumber party high up in a tree house - the view from the top would be amazing and we would play our Dulcimers together and laugh and sing! When we got tired we'd relax and recollect memories from our childhood, with the night sounds of owls and crickets as the evening breezes to lull us to sleep!
This is so inspiring! Thank you for sharing your story and inspiration! :)
I would love to keep my vision of my best friend and I simple. We're sitting together in a shady forest reading our books. A brooke babbles nearby, it's almost dusk because we've been out there all day, so fireflies are starting to appear.
I love the Aunties! I have never seen the aurora borealis, and would love to sit by a lake with my best friend, somewhere up North (but not too cold) looking up at the shimmering lights in the night sky.
Dancing in a fountain would make for a really nice memory. I've done it with my two granddaughtets. It was a blast. They are my special little dance troupe. It's time to step up my game and dance in a fountain with a friend.
I would love to go on a hike through the woods and find various creatures along the way. The aunties could go on a mischievous walk through the woods to find flowers, fairies, deer, rabbits, birds, and other cute animals.
I would love to visit and hike in U.S. National Parks with my best friend. I have already been to 5, but I want to visit many more!
I have never seen an Inge Look card; it would amazing to receive one. For me the best thing of all was a family reunion where my mother and her 7 sisters would get together and gab about plants, cooking, kids, anything. We little cousins (70 of us) would hang around and listen until they chased us away for private girltalk. Great memories of great aunties.
Every story with merry aunties brings a smile and laughter! It has been proven that laughter prolongs human life. Therefore, the Merry old ladies deserve the award of the World Health Organization!
The proposed plot:
At Christmas, merry aunties make paths to each other in deep snowdrifts to make gifts. The paths made do not meet.
I would love to travel around the world with my best friend, and send postcards to each other when we stop by a city. Then when we are back home, we can build a postcard wall together!
It’s really nice to know about the inspiration of these wonderful postcards! I have received one ingelook postcard via postcrossing, and can’t wait to receive another one!
Our adventure would be visiting some Christmas reindeer.
What a great interview! I have never seen an Inge Look card IRL; hopefully one day I'll be able to hold one in my hands.
My best friend and I love cats and love to travel - so if we can combine both, that's a win for both of us. Whether it's sipping ice cold drinks by the beach in Bali with local cats looking snuggles, or exploring beautiful forests and just drinking in all the sights and smells and sounds, everything creates a lasting memory.
Ooh, I'd like to go train hopping across the country with my friend, adventuring by boxcar and not getting caught!
I am new to Postcrossing and have not received an Inge Löök postcard yet. But after reading this post, I ran over to her website and have followed her on Instagram to look at all her artwork. She is IMMENSELY talented.
I and my friend, with whom I share so many of my interests, have been close friends for only a year and a half. She lives 2-3 minutes walk from me, and we go on adventures together. I would love for us to go for a walk in the nature one early morning and dance to our heart's content to the song of the birds. I hope Inge could capture that joy in nature on a future postcard.
I would like to go fishing with my friend.or pick berries.mushrooms.
What a wonderful way with words - I really enjoyed this! Thank you!
To write postcrossing postcards
What a beautiful interview! It reminds me on my mum, as she really enjoy Inge Löök - cards.
I received a couple of cards via Postcrossing and love the joy in it by myself. When I'm old someday, I just want to be like these old ladies.
I'm dreaming of doing long - distance trips via train to Sweden and Slovenia some day, especially via night train.
Being on such a journey with my best friend and collecting memories together, would be amazing!
I love every Inge Look postcard I receive. And realy appreciated reading the interview.
Lovely memories are of my mother having such joy cooking with her sister. And now that I am old, I love to cook with my sister, having fun together making cabbage rolls or cinnamon buns, just enjoying our time together.
I really appreciate the wonderful spirit of the old ladies and apparently of Inge Löök herself 😄
I Must admit, I have no adventures with my best Friends … but it would be Great to Go camping or kayaking!
I have a childhood friend whom I am still in contact with.
We often went on oversea trips when both of us were single.
We are still in contact.
Once we went to a spectacular firefly trip along the river in a nearby malaysia state. Just love the little twinkling lights in a super dark environment. Such a magical scene!
That inspires me to catch the splendid northern light/aurora with her one day.
That will definitely add great memories to our friendship.
Thank you.
I enjoy simple things in life. Me and my friend would like to feed the birds, in a city square, or a park or in a garden.
I love these Merry Aunties art from Inge Löök. It brings such joy to see two old ladies enjoying life to the fullest, not caring about anyone's opinions or anything about the world. I happen to have only one card from the entire series, glad that I got at least one :)
Lovely interview! I'd love to try surfing with my best friend. We did windsurfing when we were young, so board surfing would be the next step. :-)
Meet sunrise in the park with coffee in a thermos; trying tons of fancy dresses in a fancy store without a purpose to buy any; organizing a degustation and a contest for "best sparkling wine in our local corner shop"; build a doll house for our old dolls or other toys that we kept in a closet and could not through away; organise a formal party in the kitchen or in the garden, where both of us are in our best dresses gossiping and eating something tiny...
I can continue forever))
Thank you for the interview! This talented artist is such a modest person. The illustrations are rich in detail and bring many people much joy. I wish I was as courageous as the aunties!
Lovely interview and cards!
The Merry Aunties are so wonderful.
We love to stargaze and making wishes when we discover a shooting star and we also like swinging.
Thank you for making so wonderful postcards!
I would like to hike with my best friend in the mountains and take a refreshing shower under a waterfall
Hello. My friend doesn't like flowers. Does not keep them at home and in the garden. I would like to plant a rose with her and I think this situation looked beautiful on a postcard.
My bestie passed away a couple of years ago She was a huge New York Yankees fan so I envisioned going to a baseball game with her.
I've only just started collecting the Merry Aunties cards. I love them! It would be great to have some to send!
Inge Löök has a way of making so many people happy around the world!
Me and my friend walk in the forest and meet elves, which we drew in the magazines we made ourselves as little girls. Miracles happen!
Inge Look cards are so inspiring & joyful! I would be so delighted to receive my first one :) I love how her cards celebrate life and having fun - everyone at every age deserves to share a laugh & enjoy adventures!
I image my friend and I paragliding with our parachutes from a tall mountain top dressed in our elegant finery, wind blowing in our hair, goggles on and we have the biggest smiles on our faces.
Another adventure we would enjoy is an elegant high tea & cakes in the middle of the dessert with our faithful camels by our side.
I love Aunties! I have 5 Inge Look postcards at the moment and I am collect them. What about making pair tattoo with your best friend? Or going to casino :)
I would suggest Husky sledding in Lapland 😀
I got to know (and fell in love with) Inge Löök's Merry Auties through Postcrossing and now I'm so pleased to see that I admire also her way of taking life! 💗 Thanks for this interview!
Thank you for the interview! I`d like to swin on submarine with my best friend to have a look at deep sea creatures and fishes)
I’d love to spend a summer afternoon in a lovely river boat or amongst the clouds in a hot air balloon 😆
I would love spending time in a lavander field, making bouquets and drinking limonade under the shining sun.
Archery with my best friend even though we are not Katniss Everdeens. :) I have a soft spot for merry aunties, they are so funny and enjoy the life in a way everybody should. <3
I would love to go see Santa with my bestie in Finland!!
I love her cards and was lucky to receive one last week.😊
What about skydiving with my best friend....
Thanks for the interview! I'd enjoy floating in a tube on a lake with my friend.
Hya, what a funny theme as a postcard and yes, myself is a auntie. So just look at my life and have fun with nieces and nephews on the playground.
In an airballon, merry-go-round and just playing pc-games or reading to them. Is that something for a new postcard idea?!
My husband and I love hiking in the mountains. With backpacks, tent, burner and beauty all around. The most pleasant thing is to open the tent in the morning and enjoy the view 😻
I hope to receive one of her cards someday. They are amazing. I'd like to sit on a leaf in the middle of a lake with a friend and be gently blown about.
Over the years I have received a few of these wonderful postcards. Always so much to look at and such beautiful detail. Nice to see images of carefree older ladies enjoying themselves and having fun together. Have they tried beekeeping yet?
what an inspiring lady Inge Look is, wonderful to read the interview.
Alas I am not that mobile, but I would love to take (again) an hot air balloon upon in the air with my friend and have a nice glass of bubbly.
Dear Inge, I really like the interview because it makes the cards even more personal for me. I share your attitude towards life. It doesn't take much.
I've been sick for a very long time and I'm getting worse and worse at moving and can't leave the house. I've learned to get by with very little. All the little experiences of the aunties would be the greatest happiness for me. The drawings help me to dream myself back to life.
A new scene? I don't know all the drawings.
But I would very much like to collect stones and mussels on the beach and use them to build the home of my dreams.
Dear Inge, I wish you many more creative ideas for your life. Cordula
Thank you for the beautiful aunties cards, I love sending and receiving them ❤️ I would love to ride a donkey with my girlfriend, I think that would be so great 🥰
Great interview, as always. I imagine exploring the breathtaking landscapes of Iceland with my best friend. Hiking to stunning waterfalls, soaking in geothermal hot springs, and gazing at the mesmerizing Northern Lights dancing in the night sky. Our laughter echoing through the rugged terrain, and our hearts filled with awe and wonder at the beauty of this magical place. It would be a journey of unforgettable memories!
Thanks for sharing the interview in your blog. I'm lucky to have received many Inge cards for my collection and they are always a favorite. My girlfriend and I who have been friends since we were 11 will both be retiring next month on the same day. Looking forward to many adventures with her. Most likely you'll find us in the kitchen cooking a meal together for our extended friends. It will be messy and take up the whole kitchen but all made with love.
My friend and I talk often about making a road trip back to her home town, where I have never been. It would cross several US states and we planned all the places we would visit along the way - strange little out of the way places, roadside stops, parks, museums, places like that. We want to make it a memorable travel trip for us - we have been friends for 20 years :)
Do I have to mention that I love these cards so very much? There is so much positive energy in them!
An adventure I dreas of:: I would love to explore the Big Bend National Park in Texas/USA with my best friend.
I like Old Ladies cards very much
I imagine the adventure where me and my friends become as little as corn seeds and all world around is seen by us from another angle. And we start to discover the garden, the forest, the old hut, we can ride the snail or fly on a dragonfly, etc
If old ladies could become very little... would it be possible?
I'd love to explore mountains and forests worldwide with my friend. Also, I would love to see Switzerland's villages and Iceland's landscapes. :)
Thank you Inge for great interview.
I try to make little adventures in my every day life, find a new cafe, taste a new pastry I never tasted. One of the best adventures I had sleeping in sleeping bag in a little cabin. I woke up in the morning and was sure I was tiggled by elves or fairies. I was on good mood the whole day!
I wish I could make that adventure once more in my life!
The art of Inge Löök is just fantastic. I had a Finnish colleague and whenever she would return from Finland she would bring something from Inge Löök. One time on a meet and greet in a Finnish shop she bought from Inge herself a jigsaw puzzle, a green kitchen towel, a calendar, and of course (signed) cards, all with images of the old ladies.I was over the moon with it all!
Adventure with a friend: I would love to ride on a camel through the desert, into the sunset, then camp on the spot and enjoy a light pollution-free night sky filled with millions of stars.
I absolutely love the Inge Löök postcards, and have several hung up around my flat! I think some great adventures with my best friend would either be flying somewhere on holiday, taking a road trip, or going sky diving - all I think would be quite characterful on an Inge Löök postcard.
These lovely aunties remind me so much of my best friend and me. We like to think that we are still young and silly, even though age has started to interrupt us at times. I love the artistic style and colors on these cards and the fact that the wide-ranging adventures appeal to us all. Thank you Inge Look for sharing this part of you with all of us!
I adore Inge Look postcards and have started to collect them via Postcrossing. They are all over my house for others to enjoy too. I can picture myself and my old uni friend Ann sitting on a boat in the water, laughing till we fell over drinking a cocktail, hair wild, birds overhead and waiting for something special like a dolphin or a turtle or a message in a bottle 😂. Thank you Inge for making me smile 😃.
I’ve always wanted to sit under a beautiful little waterfall while the water plunged down on my head and back on a hot summer day. There are plenty of hot summer days…now I just have to find a friend and a waterfall to do it.
I got to know Inge Löök's cards through Postcrossing and just love them. I only have to look at them and smile or even laugh out loud - It's a gift the artist has given us!
My best friend and I love to cook, so I would be very happy to see the aunties in the kitchen. Maybe for a Christmas baking session (maybe even with a little help from the gnomes?), cooking spaghetti or...
Thanks for the interview, it's lovely to know that Inge Löök is getting her motifs from her own life!
Thinking of an activity I would love to do with a close girlfriend is to visit a nearby garden. My friend is visiting from Mexico and she loves all kinds of plants but mostly succulents or cactuses. When we talk about plants and gardens he face lights up!
I love the Aunties postcards as they bring so much joy when I receive one. I would love to see the Aunties visit some world heritage sites like Machu Picchu or some of the great Mayan ruins in Guatemala and Mexico. How fun would that be!!
I would like to sit on a rainbow with my best friend.
With a delicious piece of homemade cake and a cappucino with lots of milk foam! Just let your soul dangle and enjoy being together.
What a lovely interview - thank you. The Aunties are full of such joy, it's impossible not to be captured by their smiles. I image a seasonal spread of 4: cheeky snowball fight, discovering the first green sprouts amid the muddy puddles, berry picking, and then tossing the big pile of leaves in the air :)
I'd love to be relaxing at the back of a cruise ship, glass of wine in our hands, giggling and looking out at the beautiful sunset and the ship's relaxing, peaceful wake!
Oh, it is so nice to read about the person who makes the great cards!! I got my first Inge L. card from my best friend. I wish we could live like Inge and her friend!! We would definitely want to have cream tea with cats - or get to attend a small fairy/elves party.
Adventure with a friend: Going out into a marsh, maybe to help with field work or maybe just to run around and explore the muck. We'd go searching for all the critters that make their home there and tire ourselves out from being in the sun. Maybe if we're lucky in location we could also go foraging for berries. The best part would be the post-outdoors meal and drink and being too tired to do anything but laugh.
Me and my very best friend -- galloping through the high grass on our ponies. Delighted with the world, delighted with our lovable ponies and delighted with the friendship we have with each other.
Ah, what a delightful question! The adventure with my best friend would be sitting on a bench in a botanical gardens in the Sonoran Desert drinking coffee, after having hiked most of the morning.
Driving all over the USA and Canada without a set time to be anywhere or having to return at a certain time. Is that true freedom? Maybe so, maybe not
Hello. My English is not good :). I love aunties. I suggest the following postcard themes: the aunties wander the corn maze; the aunties sing Christmas carols; the aunties take care of a wet kitten; the aunties take Colorado beetles from potatoes.
I'd love to walk, swim, dive and explore the grounds of the Seven Seas together with my bestie – look at, watch, carefully observe and meet all the wondrous creatures down in the deep... :}}
I always see the Merry Anties on the wall, but I've never received one and would love to have one.
I would love to picnic under trees in spring with my bestie.
I LOVE the Inge Look cards! They warm my heart and put a smile on my face! Each time I hold one in my hands and examine it closely, a tiny detail will pop out at me that I've never noticed before.
My best friend and I would ride in a hot air balloon together, tumble down a grassy hillside, play hopscotch with happy children at the park, and cross a glass-bottomed bridge over a deep canyon with native wildlife watching us.
Thanks for the great interview!
I would like to see the aunts on the cable car with a stunning landscape of mountains and lakes :)
Inge has very cute and sincere postcards. It was interesting to read about the author.
As a variant of the plot "aunts bake a cake" and "big wash"
Thank you Inge for the interview. I love the cards you draw. Old ladies have brought a lot of joy and happiness over the years. I keep your cards as a message on the fridge door, because they exude good energy and positivity. Thank you for these interesting card stories. You would still see old ladies raging at techno parties with young people and sitting by the lake after a sauna.
Wonderful interview!
I'd love to travel to Singapore with my friends and eat Hainanese chicken rice there!
Ive just received the Aunties card of them with all their books. I'm so happy as I didn't have this one. It made me imagine my friend and I with our cats, knitting amongst the stashes of wool.
These old ladies are very naughty and loving life! I would like to keep the youth of the spirit until old age. I imagine my friend and I standing on the shore of a beautiful lake with fishing rods or flying in a balloon....
My best friend and I have already done many fantastic things together, the most recent one was a boozy canal tour in Amsterdam with plenty of gin tonic. Something we haven't done yet is having cocktails in an infinity pool looking at amazing nature / architecture.
The secret is, to never grow up, and to see the pure joy in everyday tasks.
like having a cup of tea and watching a mother bird feed her chicks, watching my cat chase a screwed up piece of paper across the wooden floor of my dining room,
my inner child with my friend is activated every time we meet, like running to the swings in the park, or taking our bikes to the skate park and watch the teenagers smile as we scream in joy as we ride down the slopes.
I love receiving a Aunties postcard, the detail and pure fun in each postcards makes me so happy.
I would love to go to the moon and helta skelter all the way back to earth.
I really love mischievous and cheerful aunts, they are so cheerful, unpredictable. I would like to be like this later, when I grow up completely :))). As a child, I was lucky enough to get chicken eggs from a chicken nest in my grandmother's barn in the village. I remember I was very afraid of the rooster, he was important and formidable. There were feathers-fluff all around, it smelled of straw. I was happy then that I got an egg. And also the baking process, when you knead the dough and you and the kitchen are always in flour.... It's all from childhood
wow... so nice to read that Inge Löök and her neighbour are the aunties.
I love these illustrations and thanks for the interview Inge and Clarisse.
Greetings (groeten)
Wonderful interview with this very talented and humble artist! Her ART is new to me but now I'll be looking for it... hopefully to be found in my mailbox one day! 😊 As for an adventure with my dear friend...it would have to be a visit to a thrift store or flea market where we just never know what treasure we'll find! 😊
I was lucky to received my first Inge Look postcard in my early debut of postcrossing, two years ago. It came from Finland from Poolata ( thank again so much to indroduce me to the fabulous world of the Auties). Of course, i've ordered those postcards from her website. I still have many of them cause it's hard to let go such beautiful cards.
I love the Protest postcard and the Dumpster Diving ones. I can see me on those weird adventures! I love you Inge! xx
Love those two ladies!
Me and a long time friend cruising in a classic or vintage car in a road through a beautiful lavender field. Greetings from Madrid 👋
Many thanks to Inge Look for her aunties stories in the cards!
Dream to have a friend who will support me in my old age with my mad ideas )))
My ideas for adventures with my friend:
- walking on stilts
- to steam in the Russian bath with birch brooms
- fly a kite in a beautiful field or meadow with flowers
- go to the zoo together: feed a giraffe by climbing on each other's shoulders))), tease a monkey))), climb on a camel.....
- caroling in costumes))) for New Year or Halloween
- visit the carnival
And in general, it seems to me that it's time for aunts to travel around the world)))))
I like that postcards very much!
The perfect card of my best friend and I would be us careening along in a jalopy by sea with the windows down and the music up and singing at the top of our lungs.
he dreamed of a flying bicycle towing a carriage with
Take care of the memos of my family!
Reading Inge Löök’s blog was my first introduction to amazingly beautiful original natural moments from life and how they arise from Inge’s brain. I’m in love with her aunties great.
I first got to know many illustrators through Postcrossing.
Inge Löök's "Aunties" - sharing those (little) magic moments with someone.
> Would like to do:
* spending a night on the top of a lighthouse
* carve an ice sculpture
> Already done:
* burying a time capsule
* cherry pit far spitting contest
* catching fireflies
* find the entrance to a "secret" cave^^
* finding "TRASHures" in an abandoned building (apothecary bottle, broken bronze figurine, rusty but pretty spoon, ...)
... and many more :o]
We’re going out to look for lichen and mushrooms!
I am glad to have met the artist Inge Löök in person a few times at a countryside food and crafts fair. I bought loads of the Aunties postcards and got a few of them signed by this kind and modest artist. I asked her whether she had ever thought about drawing the Aunties watching the northern lights to which she replied "what an interesting idea"... This happened several years ago and I have been looking out for such a card, even picturing it in my head, wishing I could draw like this myself (don't we all?!)
So, imagine my joy and surprise a few weeks ago when the new Aunties card hit the shops with an Aurora theme. It's perfect!
In fact, I dream about watching the northern lights with a friend of mine, but I think I would prefer to lie down comfortably in one of those glass igloos, maybe listening to classical music.
Great blog 👍
Such fun characters! Thank you... I love to go on a road trip with my friend... to a Postcrossing meet-up of course! (and probably another race too)
What wonderful adventures the aunties have! With my best friend I would like to go fishing and then cook the fish on a fire. I hope to make that a reality in October. Birdwatching would also be fun
I am a big fan of the Aunties cards too and enjoy every one I receive via Postcrossing. I can put myself in the aunties' shoes so well and think it's great to do crazy things and have so much fun. I would love to drive a vintage tractor with a friend across a stubble field at sunset in the evening when I get older. Maybe there are still bales of straw there where we can have a picnic and enjoy the sunset.
Thanks for publishing the lovely interview!
Eat and drink with just our body, no helping instruments :))
I knew these were popular from reading Postcrossing profiles! Now I see why! :) (I love that she and her neighbor are "the aunties"! :) ) I'd like to see the aunties:
* exploring a tidepool
* sailing a mini-sailboat on a pond
* taking a hike in an Alpine cow pasture
That's just to keep it short. :) I think I would enjoy whatever they get up to!
A wonderful interview with a great artist.
I love the aunties! My Penfriend and fellow postcrosser sent me some signed auntie postcards and they are very carefully placed in an album. She has already mentioned the northern lights idea... Which I would just love - it is my ambition! (the glass igloo idea would actually be even better in real life)
I have some interesting adventures geocaching with my friends in the UK I would love to see the aunties with a GPS searching for tupperware lost in the woods.
I love the auntie cards and have a nice collection. I'd love to see the aunties in a lighthouse tower or floating down a lazy river in two colorful tubes.
I love the old aunties cards! With my friend I would love to ride horses bareback like the wind! The wind in our hair and the horses manes and tails! We would be clothed of course! LOL
I love the aunties cards. My friend and I love to visit flea markets. I am sure the aunties also would have enjoyed to visit them
I would love to see the aunties water-skiing, or at least trying to! I water-skied as a teenager but at first I had great difficulty getting my body up and out of the water. Some people just pop up like a cork but it took me several tries to finally get it right. After that it was fairly easy. The aunties would love getting in the water I’m sure!
What a fun interview and great comments!
I love collecting the Aunties cards.
With my best friend, I dream of:
- finding a hatching sea turtle nest on a moonlit beach
- tye-dyeing a tablecloth in a giant vat
- drawing chalk pictures on the sidewalk
- riding unicycles
- dancing to a steel pan band
With one of my best friends, I'd love to go on an adventure back to the Whitsundays islands, and sail about as we did back in 1988.
I would like to see the aunties imagining their heaven.
Hello! A cute idea would be catching fireflies or going to a rummage sale, panning for gold or looking for sea shells! Love the aunties!
I'd go in a hot air balloon with my best friend!
I really enjoy Inge Löök cards, and my favorite are the New Year cards! One of the adventures I'd enjoy sharing with a best friend is dancing on the beach, under the moonlight or at sunset :) another adventure is feeding ponies in an apple orchard. Thank you for sharing this interview!
My friend and I really enjoy nature and to walk in the mountains. There is this great moment when you've reached your destination all tired and sweaty but so very happy that you made it and so very hungry. And in the mountain huts there is always somethig really delicious to eat (or maybe it is your hunger talking) and there is always the house wine. And most of the times there are other companies that have guitars and you sing songs all evening around the fire and watch the stars. And you need to sneak behind a tree to pee. And after that in the tent, you talk until sunrise because you don't want the day to be over and its perfect.
Celebrating the solstice by wearing flower crowns together
riding on a carousel together, right in the middle of all the little kids!
Such an inspiring woman, loving the little things. I would want to be a post(wo) man and bring some joy to people to make them smile and maybe enjoy a cup of coffee with the two aunties.
I had no idea the merry aunties were Löök and her neighbour, how sweet! I would want to hike through dense wilderness with my best friend; I know we'd both enjoy it a ton and all that detailed greenery would look incredible on a postcard. We've also wanted to go to places where the clouds are very close to the ground! What a cool postcard that would be, two merry aunties chasing after clouds.
I've always seen me as one of the aunties but have no best friend the same age. My best friend is my daughter and we often do things like the aunties.
One of my best adventures has already happened: a sailing trip to northern Norway in winter with two scenes perfect for an auntie postcard:
standing on the very first part of the sailing ship with the waves making it raise and fall (a bit like the famous scene from Titanic) while watching some orcas around us
or
having a snowshoe walk on a small island in untouched snow. Best part ist jumping downhill with a big laughing because it's so much fun.
I think of adventures from my childhood with my first best friend, we spent many hours of play under the weeping willow tree . Loved the lacy branches to look out and the sun light peaking thru.
We would love to adventure by train across the country.
To wear a princess dress with my friend and a tiara of course, watching our favorite movie "Snow Queen" and eat chocolates. We have been planning this for a while...maybe when our kids are bigger it'll come true.
Merry Aunties cards shine the light in my mind that how happy we can be when we get old. Not just taking care of what medicine I need to take every day or looking back to the past time and feeling sad about what else I can still work on with my old body. I particularly love postcard No.74. I want to grow old with my best friends and try every adventure we want to without regret.
My friend and I would take a nice stroll along the banks of a river and take our time studying the beautiful flowers and plants. Slowing walking along conversing if we want or being quiet. Just being side by side once again. Enjoying the moment. No pressures and no stress, no worries for a wee bit. Let mother nature surround us and nature our souls.
For a post card design about friends two images instantly came to mind together: my husband & I riding off into the sunset on a motorcycle, and my sister and sledding off our roofs into the snowbanks. As for future adventures, I hope to enjoy a long road trip with my family to see all the natural beauty and then settle into a quiet homestead. :)
I love Inge Look postcards, I aspire to be like the merry aunties one day!
I'd love to blow bubbles in the snow - bit difficult considering I live in a desert climate!
I collect postcards with cheerful old ladies, they are wonderful!
I want to see the Anniva lighthouse with my girlfriend, we have been friends for 35 years
No adventure necessary - just seeing my best friend face-to-face would be reward enough! We live 300 miles apart and haven't seen each other in person in over 5 years. :-(
I am 80 years old & my dream is to lie near the pyramid of Giza at night & gaze up at the stars. I don’t know why but I often think how wonderful that would be.
Son increíbles! Y ahora tras conocer más sobre la autora, me gustan todavía más. Me veo reflejada en cada una de ellas dentro de unos años. Mi prima Núria y yo haciendo el Camino De Santiago, buceando, …
Gracias a la autora por su creatividad y a esta entrevista.
They are incredible! And now after learning more about the author, I like them even more. I see myself reflected in each of them in a few years. My cousin Núria and I doing the Camino De Santiago, diving, … Thanks to the author for her creativity and this interview.
Maybe a day at the beach with something to drink and some good food.
The art is so detailed and colorful, and the aunties so lively and always so cheerful, that they make me feel cheerful on a gloomy day.
My best friend and I would sail on a yacht and see the different kinds of whales leaping out of the water, amidst dancing dolphins and a glorious sunset.
I have seen gray whales before, but to see some of the others would be amazing!
My best friend is my dog Kalinda. It would be nice to have a garden of my own to work and garden, lounge around and take a deep breath. A big nest swing would be great, then we could admire the stars at night.
I don't think I've ever received one of these postcards. My best friend and I live in different cities but we would love to visit the beach and meet mermaids and seals for a visit.
I've never received one of these amazing postcards, but my mailbox would sing with joy if I did! I envision my best friend and I traveling Route 66 in the USA in a red convertible. I think the Aunties would love Route 66!
I love this interview! I would love to sail down a river in a fun cat-shaped canoe or something similar.
Oh, I adore the old ladies of Inge Löök and dream of collecting all types of cards one day. I would like to have such funny moments in my old age :)
Of the new ideas, I would like to see old ladies, since I see my old age myself - we do with my friend what we do not dare or do not find time now - we have fun at a big rock concert at the stadium, drive a car along a mountain serpentine or doing paired tattoos! :)))
So cool to read over the drawings magician! Well, talking over magician, I would love to share magics with my BBFs <3 Although I already share Postcrossing :)
Writing postcards with my best friend. From a beautiful destination with awfull weather, writing 'wishing you having a sunny day everyday like we have overhere'.
As a child I dreamt of tiny black and white cats walking and leaping from colorful flower to flower. I would be tiny too with a tiny friend and have fun on the flower tops with the little cats. Lovely interview-thank you!
Take a dip into the river with my best friend to find the lost kingdom of Queen Medusa.
Hey, I love the interview with Inge Löök.
The funny aunties postcards are so positive, full of joy, mischievousness, simple + happy life, friendship, nature. I am fascinated by the great details in the cards. Every card I receive is a little gift, very precious. I even have the 2023 calendar by Inge Löök with her funny grannies.
I would love to climb a pretty old tree with my best friend, then sit there on a branch, laughing and singing.
I love merry aunties by Inge Löök. They always make me smile 😊 I want to be a cheerful aunt too. I want to write a letter while playing with the animals in the forest and having a tea party. Discussion while eating delicious food in the snow igloo! I also want to travel in the sky with a parachute. Thank you for sharing Inge Löök's interview!
I love Inge Löök’s postcards! And having wine with my best friend in a tree sounds wonderful.
I love to receive postcards with funny stories of aunts. For some reason, a plot for a future postcard came to mind, how these cheerful and courageous old women decided to jump with a parachute
Lovely interview! An imagined adventure would be berry picking with the bears!
Nice interview, and it's always lovely to receive an Inge Löök postcard and equally lovely to make another postcrosser happy with such a funny card :)
Plot idea for a future postcard: as we're mid summer, I was thinking about our aunties having some fun at the sea, by making a big sand castle in which they take part in a Rapunzel re-enactment (tower scene with hair braid). Or a little more adventurous: the two aunties having some fun (wind/kite)surfing or sand yachting
having a cocktail with my friend at the beach installed on a long chair watching the sunset with the feet in the water and singing out loud :-)
What a treat to find this interview today! I love the Aunties and so enjoyed hearing some of the backstory. I mailed one to a dear friend recently - the hitchhikers - and will be sending the dumpster divers to another. Both adventures we've been on together in our younger years - love the idea of still indulging in our impending golden years.
I'm new to Postcrossing and I love the fun and exciting stories you can put into little cards. In addition, I feel really happy that the postcard will be delivered to my home mailbox from someone somewhere in the world in a few days. When I read it, I imagine what kind of scenery I was looking at when I wrote it, or who the person was living with. Seeing Ingerik's aunts warms my heart. Because my mother cannot walk and has to use a wheelchair, she is in a nursing home, unable to stay in her own home where she lived for many years. When I look at Ingeruk's aunts, I am happy because I remember how her mother used to go out and be active with her friends. I'm excited just imagining that I might have received a card from two aunts in my mailbox today. Thank you very much.
We eat breakfast on the patio at our favorite restaurant and watch the people go by!
I would love to be in a tube and my bestie would be beside me in her tube floating down the river. Letting the hot summer day pass us by!
Oh do come to Alaska to draw the adventure of hiking here. Such incredible nature from the fireweed or cinquefoil to the mountain alpine flowers and the cranberry flowers/fruits under the Spruce trees.
I think milking cows would make a great adventure! We could squirt each other with the milk and let the cats have the drops:)
Thank you for your interview. The Aunties teach us how to enjoy every day. And that "it's never too late to be who you want to be"
I would like to have lunch on the riverbank with the crows and kittens I sometimes meet in town, and spend time looking lazily across the river.
The Aunties postcards are wonderful!! I'd love to receive one someday via Postcrossing.
So nice getting a peek into your life, thank you for sharing!
I envision sitting on a big quilt under the stars dreaming about life on other planets.
I can imagine my bestie and I in our “old age” sitting in our beach chairs at the beach watching my grandchildren build sand castles.
I love the style of illustrations of Inge Löök! I can imagine that I and my best friend sitting on a boat watching whales on the ocean near Alaska! We're having lemon tea with apples an berries. The whales are a mother whale and her baby. The cloud and sky are in beautiful color, which makes the ocean water the same color. How romantic and relax it'd be!
Thank you for sharing her interview!
I want to go skydiving with my best friend!
and shout out loud. :) :)
Thank you for the great interview!
If I were to have adventure with my best friend.
1 Drive on straight Hokkaido roads.
2 We are going to see Okama in Mt.Zao. Okama is crater lake.
3 We will go to Ginzan Onsen. We can take a footbath. I'll buy a watermelon on the way home.
I am also the same old woman, so I love Inge Lök's postcards. When I'm sad and happy, I look at these postcards. I would very much like to do something without thinking about what passers-by and relatives will say. I also love small cozy rooms and my kitchen of 5 sq.m, where you can drink a glass of wine and enjoy coffee with a freshly baked cake.
I would like to add to my comment. I fell in love with ballet from the age of 9 and still want to do ballet. Once I even went to a trial lesson: it was funny for others and difficult for me.
I have several of your cards (some of them hand signed!) from a wonderful Postcrossing friend in Finland. She loves to garden and grows potatoes; she also gathers wild mushrooms and berries. If you haven’t already, these might be interesting topics for new cards. I know I’d love to share these tasks with my friend.
Love the anties! I would like to travel in a canoe along the Ålands Islands with my friend?
Wonderful cards! I know my friend from school times and every time I see these pictures I secretly hope that one day in future we will be two old ladies as free and happy as the aunties on cards. And our adventure? Definitely we two on the same canoe in school trip: our first and last row ever, as we were not able to move 🤣😂. Every time we remember this situation we simply cannot stop laughing now. And it was more than 30 year ago...
I don't see my best friend often enough but when we get together we like to eat and drink, and sometimes dance. We both get excited about crafting project so perhaps making something together while sharing a glass of wine and some delicious cake!
Hello 💖 ich tobe gern mit meinen Enkeln in unserem Schrebergarten herum.Arbeite im Pflegeheim als Betreuerin und liebe es sehr die Menschen glücklich zu machen.Ich fahre wöchentlich zwei Damen je eine Stunde mit dem Rollstuhl in der Natur spazieren,bei jeden Wetter und Ehrenamtlich.Sie freuen sich so sehr,da sie keine Familie mehr haben.Das währe ein tolles Motto für eine Karte mit den alten Damen💋herzliche Grüße von 🦋 Marlies 🦋 Morle-Maus 🐀
Oh my gosh...I'm in love! What a fantastic artist she is!
I can imagine pretending to be mermaids under the sea, sipping tea;
Or white-water rafting down a deep-canyon river;
Or paragliding over a meadow of flowers;
Or snorkeling amongst the reef creatures;
Or simply laughing in the park on a checkered picnic blanket.
With my friend I would like to have a picnic on the moon to eat cheese and to look out to the beautiful blue marble of the earth and all its precious nature.
I aways adore spirited old ladies. They are usually my favourite characters in any film, book or TV series.
I would dream about roller skating with a friend on an empty country road through lovely landscape.
I Like to romp around With my grandchildren in our allotment Garden 🦔 I Work in nursing Home as a caregiver and i really Love making people Happy are so Happy because they No longer have a Family.That would be a great Motto Foto a Card With the old Ladies♥️warm regards from 🦋 Marlies 🦋 Morle-Maus 🐀
My best friend has been suffering from depression (and other ills) and hasn't been out in over a year. So I'd like to go with her to a crab feast (Maryland, USA-style) and eat crabs and drink beer and gossip about our lives like we used to.
My good friend and I are special education aides and I would love to see us surrounded by children of all ages romping in a garden.
Sue and I would be taking a walk in the Arboretum near my house. Along the way we see wonderful things like birds, bugs, statues made of Legos and stop to have a picnic with the squirrels, birds, and butterflies.
love the cards and after reading Inge's words I would like to go back to a summers day in a wheat field where I would be hiding or chasing through the wheat squealing with delight when surprised by a mate. truly a magic moment
Ozpom
↑ Back to top ↑