Thoughts in the USA

Sometimes you live in a place without really knowing what it has to offer. In my defense, I only live here for 6 years (in fact, TODAY is the 6-year anniversary to me moving to the USA!!!).

Still, I am amazed that we never heard of this.

Apparently, every year, there is a special event called "Bouquets To Art". It used to be at the Legion of Honors and is now at the de Young museum of art in an Francisco - and it's been going on for 24 years!

What is it about?

In a nutshell, for five days in March, this event features floral arrangements by prominent Bay Area designers and garden clubs, to interpret and complement the museum’s collection of artwork.

Who knew??

I heard of it through WackieM's blog post, and so The JohnnyB and I decided that we have to see it.

That is, I decided.

I mean , I sent an excited email to The JohnnyB, but - being too busy at work - he had no time to look at the links I attached, so he thought it was yet another art show, and said "Sure". He had no idea what it's about - which contributed to his surprise and delight when he found out what it was as we stepped into the museum.

As for me, I went with very high expectations - and came out stunned! It was so beautiful, so bursting with color and creativity, and so incredibly unique. Dozens of bouquets and floral arrangements were scattered throughout the museum, each interpreting one piece of art, be it a painting, a photograph. a sculpture or even a building you see through the window.

As in any art show, some of the pieces were pretty lame, looking like someone just made a bouquet and looked for a place to put it, with no relation whatsoever to the artwork it was suppose to echo. Most of what we saw was really neat, and some were truly superb.

I can see some of you asking, "How can you interpret a work of art by using flowers?"

Ahhhhhh, let me count the ways... some bouquets echoed the colors, some imitated the shapes, some went for the mood, some went with the movement and direction - all the elements of design were used there in a spectacular demonstration of creativity. The JohnnyB commented it's a very nice way to look at art, as it suddenly makes you look at pieces you may have otherwise passed by, as you stop next to each floral and wonder how it relates to the piece of art it's doing the tribute for. With the more successful ones, it brought up elements in the artwork that you never saw before, and it made you look at it through the eyes of the floral artist, seeing what s/he saw, and appreciating their unique way of interpretation.

It wasn't easy to choose which ones to capture, as there were so many, and so many good ones!

So, I took photos of the ones which appealed to me the most.

Those that to me were less obvious, and went beyond just copying the image.

Labels: Art, Creativity of Others, Wow

# posted by Nava @ 4:21 PM