Winter White Wonderland

 

Around the holidays there are a lot of white flowers for sale. The choice generally runs between ho!ho!ho! red or white. Not an ivory white, not a creamy white, but the brightest, coolest of whites. A white that's bracing and clean, like snow. Or a bright punctuation in the short days of winter, a floral equivalent of twinkle lights.

The camellias and little red tomatoes came in from my garden. Camellias usually last one day before their edges turn brown. If you strip all the leaves they last longer without browning, but they are so very delicate. And tomatoes ripe for Christmas is a first. The shape of Christmas future?

Goodbye leaves

  
    In the world of fashion, there was a rule that was followed very faithfully by the girls in my family when I was growing up; do not wear white- shoesjackethandbag- etc. past Labor Day. 

Similarly, in the world of floral imagery you are not supposed to see fall leaves past Thanksgiving. So this is my last chance to share these photos from a commemorative celebration without offending any subconscious sense of what feels right in the world. This rule makes more sense to me than the white shoes tradition since it acknowledges the seasons. Though in our neck of the woods the fall leaves are still around until spring starts it's regrowth. It took this east coaster a long time before I could wrap my mind around that one.

A beautiful chaos

   This arrangement feels a little like the inside of my head and heart today; mixed up, but trying to find the mark.  There is so much at stake these days. I ponder the hopscotching of big storms from Katrina to Sandy and worry about our fate here on the west coast. 

Contrast that with a bucolic warm weekend surrounded by music, good food, and good fellowship at a friends ranch in the Sierra foothills this weekend. 

These days I take some comfort in Buddhist philosophy that teaches that the nature of this is world has always been chaotic. That chaos is the nature of life here from birth to death. We have to find the island within ourselves and to work outwardly, sharing what we have to offer. I'm searching very hard today. 

The grapevines  and pine needles came from Tom and Gayle's ranch. Thanks you two!
                    VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE

Ghost of fall past, fall present

Color, abscence of color

   



























         


 If there's any color that feels natural to be so vivid it's the color orange because it's right there in the big old, everyday sky.

 A visual contrast to all this color saturation took place on a camping trip Jon and I recently took up the Northern California coast. The sun was hidden and It misted heavily the whole entire time. The coast here has a very austere color palette on even on a sunny day. When it's foggy or misty, the predominant color is grey. It's very beautiful, but for some reason I need mental preparation to drop down into it and find that beauty and not want to run inland. Just a few miles further east, the sun was out and the bright fall colors were doing their thing. But knowing it was out there somewhere sort of made me feel better and want to stay and get into the gray.

I guess I'm not one of those people who revel in fog, though I can see that it would be like being wrapped in a big down blanket.

Don't be stealing my pig

We were at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass in Golden Gate Park this weekend and I lost my hat. I have a lot of hats, but never wear any of them except the one that is quirkily Spanish looking and belonged to Maggie, my mother-in law. How I loved it.

 I don't think anybody stole it. I think I just left it behind in the dust. But I still have my pig.

South San Francisco Spring Garden Fundraiser

 The City of South San Francisco invited me to do a floral demonstration at their Spring Fundraiser along with 5 other  speakers. After the initial terror and getting used to the headset microphone, it was great fun!

I'm taking my former Montessori teaching experience and  mixing it up with my years of floral design in the Home Staging and free- lance floral design to encourage people to put together flowers for their homes.

Now to work directly with groups doing hands on design.

Sigh.... that  antique pitcher was so cool. It went to a good home though- don't you have ENOUGH vases, m.a.? Never, never...

Obnoxiously orange vase take 2

Land of VASE

Consider the vase. In my mind it's at it's most lowly form in the kind of cheap and ubiquitous vases that come with FTD type floral deliveries. Where do they end up? I see a lot at thrift stores. They make me sad. The inexpensive, mass produced ones take away from the flowers. Because a beautiful or earthy or quirky container paired together with  interesting flowers becomes something more than the individual parts

Here's my most recent thrift store purchase.The vase is almost obnoxious, it's so vivid. It's brighter than anything in my house. But it turns out it looks interesting with browned out colors and I think there's more interesting combos to explore. It reminds me that fall is around the corner, but I'm preferring to see it as a height of the summer color, rather than that of a Halloween pumpkin. We'll be seeing those soon enough.

Land of daisies and redwoods

These shots were taken at our new favorite campground. It's hard to find a campground that's small, removed and quiet enough to feel like you're sleeping out in nature, instead of in a jolly,noisy town that sprung up in the woods.

- hey, I just described the Strawberry Music Festival outside of Yosemite. I stand corrected. Sometimes noisy, jolly camps are a lot of fun.  

This is Humboldt Redwoods State Park in Northern California at Albee Creek. These shots were taken out of the redwood groves and in an old abandoned apple orchard. I really understand the allure of daisies when I see them growing in fields among grasses, especially in this smaller more delicate size.

Before we came here, I did a wedding in the golden foothills of Colombia, Ca. More on that later, but here's a shot of the little bouquets I made for 4 young flower/cowgirls, who appeared to abandon their bouquets and boots simultaneously.The bouquets remind me of the daisy fields I saw later at the campground- same time of day, around sunset..There's a little magic in the effect of fading light on small white flowers.

Signed, sealed, delivered

Morris Graves Museum, Eureka, CA

June 14-July 22 2012

"Orchid Dreams"

I'm having a one woman show of paintings on bamboo panels 5 hours north at the Morris Graves Museum in the great redwood nation north of my home. I've been an orchid geek for many years. I don't raise them, but have been enamored with the wild, native ones that grow all over the world. In my mind, orchids are fellow citizens of the world. They (like other flowers) are powerful spiritual companions whose language we don't quite understand, but are drawn to from the little micro,micro particles of our DNA.

I'm especially jazzed for this opportunity because the namesake of the museum, Morris Graves ( 1910-2001) is a painter that I have admired for a long time. He is labeled a "transcendental painter" and was a practicing Buddhist. Among other subjects he painted a series of flowers that provide an early inspiration for flower groupings in small bottles.

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The Visit- to Flora Grub in S.F. The Book- The 50 Mile Bouquet

Flora Grub floragrubb.com/ is a very hip gardening and landscaping store in S. F. that focuses of the use of succulents, air plants (tillandsia), and palms. Their selection includes many plants suited to our Mediterranean-type of climate. The store has a contemporary feel with a bold color palette. The design of this large store and cafe is as much a feature as it's offerings. I felt like I had stumbled upon a happening scene.  Was I dressed okay?

  

Above is a beautiful arrangement made in a demonstration lecture by Susie Nadler, the resident floral designer who seems to incorporate succulents and air plants in almost all of her work.

But But But...the other reason I made the trip: The flower arranging demonstration was part of the introduction this long awaited book;

 "The 50 Mile Bouquet", the50milebouquet.com/ by Debra Prinzing and David Perry. 

Debra was on hand to talk about the movement to grow flowers locally. Currently the majority of flowers are grown in South America with a heavy use of pesticide exposure to the workers and the flowers. The book tells the story of the local flower growing movement on the West Coast. It shares the stories of flower growers and the floral designers who use them. A very inspiring and uplifting project. Debra gives updates on this trend on the website.

Little Flower School comes to town

It been a long time. I've been in my studio making paintings for a show at the Morris Graves Museum in Eureka. Painting has been harder these days with my growing commitment and business of floral design.

But I had to throw down my brushes for this class and now my brain is short circuiting again. You would think that working on paintings of flowers while working on floral design would be so natural and easy.

 It's not for me. I don know......

The Little Flower School  http://little-flower-school.blogspot.com/ is run by two floral designers with separate businesses n New York; Nicolette Owen & Sarah Ryhanen.

Nicole shared that she had lived briefly in Rockridge in Oakland before returning to live in NY. Now she and Sarah have come to do a tour of  Northern California and offer 3 classes. It's a testament to their amazing talent and tech ability to plug in internationally, that they can fill their classes at a top dollar price. And the sheer number and quality of flowers and foliage they brought to class was worth the price of admission. They edited their selection of 30 or so materials from a palette that is their signature; Soft, muted colors. This time the selection was from warm side of the color wheel  which included browned out magenta, pink, yellow, grey green and purples. Though their instructions were clear and simple, their way of using color isn't. It's quite nuanced and that's what makes their work so distinctive- that and the quality of movement and and controlled wildness. My bouquet (shown) included 26 kinds of flowers tucked into a container that was the size of a large coffee mug. It didn't lend itself to a long lived arrangement, despite my care. But it was my choice to pile it on as most of my arrangements are more spare. And it brought back home the notion of the true ephemeral quality of flowers.

Thumbs down to cymbidiums, thumbs down to mauve???

How can I say that I don't like an orchid after spending 6 or so years studying and then painting them? In my artwork I chose to work with wild (species) orchids which often look like they don't belong on this planet, or are less showy and often very tiny. I chose them mainly because they are fascinating and overshadowed by their very beautiful hybridized cousins. I have nothing against hybridized orchids for sure, but cymbidiums fell into my thumbs down category because they are so ubiquitous here. They lurk behind every garden gate, as we can easily grow them outdoors.

But then I was given this huge cymbidium plant last fall. This spring it has come forth in bloom with 6 huge flower sprays with no effort from me except to water it. And it's the color mauve, one of my least favorite colors. So it's a challenge to my opinionated self, because it is very beautiful and I am now it's proud guardian. Once again, I'm up against my value system of the flowers I gravitate to and the ones that bring out the yuk factor. Is it possible to like all flowers equally? To be able to work with any of them instead of saying this one is in and this one is out. Just bring an open, creative mind to the table and and see what happens. Is this a metaphor for life or what?

Three seconds at Sunrise

 

The yellow rose of Columbia

It was a risky purchase. Roses from Columbia from a vendor at the Flower Mart whose flowers aren't always reliable. That's why folks: its best to buy from a source you trust, buy locally grown when you can, or pick it from your garden- where the rest of my materials came from. 


Despite all the floral tricks I tried, these tight yellow buds remained closed and silent for many a day. First it was the potential that they would open. Next I just appreciated them for their closed selves.

Trunk show at Yogaworks

Very warm temps at the yoga studio made these bouquets spring open at a rate not to be missed. Live and learn.

This is not the Pieta

I'm currently rereading the biography of  sculptor and artist Michelangelo by Irving Stone. Why am I rereading it? Because it was the book I chose to put under my ailing cat Ruby's food dish, so that- you know, she didn't have to bend her neck down so far to eat. When the time came that she didn't need it anymore, why not be absorbed by reading about the life of someone other than my sad self.

This time around, I'm fascinated by the descriptions of working marble. Marble sculpture is not a medium I've given a lot of thought to, nor Michelangelo's work, though I bow to his dedication and genius. His love of stone and for working the material is so compelling. Marble has a grain like wood. To work it is to know it's structure intimately. He would assess marble when the morning sun would hit it just so, to be able to see into it's translucent mass. Imagine chipping at marble, how to find the point of entry to make it's crystal structure penetrable. Where are my chisels? Surely there's a chunk on marble lying around here someplace!

 It's gotten me thinking about white surfaces with an organic quality. And while I debate whether to try my hand at carving marble, this is abalone table and can remind me of the glowing quality of marble.

Paintings gone pink

Life vacillates between painting flowers, arranging them, and raising  a few in my  garden- sometimes it feels like life is 100% plants, 100% of the time.  

I've tweaked these sepia paintings on bamboo into note cards for the day of Love into an extremely pinkish mode.

These are native orchids. I wanted to call attention to them as they usually get overshadowed by their hybridized cousins. I visit a greenhouse in Pacifica, CA to photograph and sketch them.The orchid family kind of gets under your skin. They are so damn exotic and erotic. It's interesting but not surprising then, that men seems as drawn to them as women. 

Still minimal

The last photo shoot proved that I still haven't mastered my camera.  So here are some past photos while on the theme of the using plant materials sparingly in interesting containers. Here in northern California we are already stepping into the spring season. Fruit blossoms and mimosa are starting to pop. I thought I'd move into spring slowly and say goodbye to winter. I've lived in the East and true West (California is the far (out) West) and know spring is a ways away there.

So I'm thinking about ya'll.