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

 

Breathing Flower at SF Civic Center

Choi Jeong Hwa's Breathing Flower at the Civic Center
Plaza across from the Asian Art Museum. Photo by Kim Munson.

Was headed to the SF Public Library yesterday, and was blown away by Choi Jeong Hwa's 24 foot sculpture Breathing Flower, which is on display in the Civic Center Plaza across from the Asian Art Museum as part of the Phantoms of Asia exhibition. Read more about it at SFGate.

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.

 

Annual Auction at Intersection for the Arts

Busy bees at Intersection.

I created several centerpieces for Intersection for the Arts annual art auction and gala fundraiser. This year was particularly exciting because Intersection had moved their gallery from their Mission location on Valencia Street to new digs at the historic SF Chronicle building on Mission Street. The theme was bees and beehives. I created this centerpiece of Spring greens, flowers, ribbon and bees for the main table, and smaller groupings of spring flowers for the bar and cocktail tables. Congrats to Intersection!

Ornamento at the Fairmont

Mock-up of Ornamento at the Fairmont by Kim Munson, 2010.

Ornamento has recently taken over the floral shop at the Fairmont Hotel, and become their preferred florist for events in the hotel. The shop had a "soft launch" a couple weeks ago, and we expect to hear about about a big grand opening in the next month or so. 

The graphic on the left is a mock-up of the interior I did for a proposal to the Fairmont. They eventually  decided on a modern French studio theme and I'm sure it will look great.

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!