Bouquets to Art 2013

If you can't see the slideshow above, click here to see it on Flickr

In March the de Young Museum was once again transformed by the best floral designers in the SF Bay Area during the annual Bouquets to Art event. Every year I am blown away by the astounding creativity on display. The slideshow above is only a small sample of the many brilliant pieces reinterpreting the art in the de Young's galleries.

Michael Daigian's interpretation of Albert Bierstadt's California Spring, 1875

 

AIFD AIR in CCSF Currents

The City College of San Francisco newsletter, Currents, did a nice write up on the AIFD Artist in Residence event. Thanks to everyone! It was a fun and interesting event.

AIFD AIR Event at CCSF

 

If you can't see this slideshow, click here to see it on Flickr 

The photos in the slideshow above are from the American Institute of Floral Designers Artist in Residence Program demo April 12th at CCSF. The featured designers were Hiromi Nomura AIFD, Kaori Imaizumi AIFD, Katherine Zhang AIFD, Susan Ishkanian AIFD, Yoko I. Klingbiel AIFD and Emil Yanos AIFD. Floral materials were donated by Kitayama Brothers.

All the designers were given the same urn and general selection of materials. It was really interesting to see how differently the designers put these together. All the designers did a second, more personal arrangement. Most of them have participated in floral design competitions, and in Bouquets to Art, so it was interesting to hear them talk about inspiration, tips and tricks, and how they got started.  Thanks to Jenny Tabarracci, the CCSF floral department and the SAIFD Menzie Chapter for organizing this great event.

Bouquets to Art 2010

Floral design by Pico Design,Pico Soriano with Ignacio Lopez,
based on Berkeley No. 3 (1954) by Richard Diebekorn or, as I like to
think of it, Still Life with Law Professor (Mark H. Greenberg).

The annual Bouquets to Art exhibition was at the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park this past week. It was amazing as always with over 150 floral designers participating (see a full list here).

There were a few things that really stood out to me, in terms of design. People seemed to move away from monotone designs and there was an explosion of color in high contrast compositions. Designers embraced painted leaves and flowers, dyed flowers, recycled materials, colored wire, and all kinds of props and bling. I saw several designs that used Gypsophila (Baby's Breath) in innovative ways, a filler flower that is often shunned (seen as the "dozen roses and baby's breath" bouquet that was popular a couple of generations ago). There were several arrangements that used glass tubes extensively as a design element, and some that were done in terrarium styles. Flowers were grouped by texture and color, and there were also many designs composed of several arrangements working together. People made great use of succulents, and found some that looked pretty exotic.

Floral design by Waterlily Pond Floral Design based on Ultramarine
Stemmed Form with Orange from the Persian series,
by Dale Chihuly. The blue "shell" is made of painted palm leaves.

I wish I could remember the location of all of the designs in the photos shown in the slideshow embedded below. This is actually only a portion of the many outstanding designs in the exhibition. If you can't see the slideshow below, click here to see it on Flickr.

 

Ornamento at Bouquets to Arts

Daisies at the de Young

Ornamento's installation for Bouquets to Art 2011 was created in the long triangular space right next to the main enterance. This space has long display windows on both sides, and can be seen from both the exterior courtyard and from the main lobby of the museum.

Inspired by the coming of Spring, we installed over 200 Gerbera Daisies, in a spectrum of colors. The colors began at one end of the long window with white, then yellow though orange to orange-red, then went from dark magenta through all the pinks to the lightest blush pink.

Museum visitors on opening day seemed very happy to see the "daisy field" a sign of Spring after days of overcast weather.

Bouquets to Art 2010

Cel snaps of the amazing floral designs on display at the de Young's annual Bouquets to Art event, in which designers from around the bay area create pieces based on works in the de Young's permanent collection. April 20-24, 2010.

I was pleased to assist on the event this year with other CCSF students, particularly the opportunity to help Kiko Zimmerman of tk designs prep for her demos. Her designs were spectacular!