Pave' 2016

Some photos from Saturday's workshop. 

Ah, Pave', so simple and so challenging! 
This most painterly form of arrangement kicks our butts.

Great job!

   

Is it Ikebana or is it a Rolex?

The magazines are showing spring blossoms and yet I am still holding on to winter and enjoying the local seasonal transition. In the yard the hellebores, white violets and the dreaded sour grass are in bloom. Lots of spring buds look fully loaded. 

This minimal composition is made of what was at hand; date palm bark a friend found and passed on (knowing I like botanical oddities), a Rex begonia flower threaded through the bark, light green usnea from our Christmas tree foraging expedition, lichen collected in the  Sierras, and a tarnished  pitcher my sister-in-law gave me. This arrangement is the other side of the wild garden like compositions that usually appear in the journal, but I do like spare minimal ones as well. Is it Ikebana? I don't know but am inspired me to look into this form of floral design I'm at odds with.

Ikebana is the ancient Japanese art form of arranging flowers in a very minimal fashion. It is venerated in this country. It is in art museums. landscape design shows, in print and on stage. Ikebana even dominates the floral exhibit area of our county fair. Yep, all the best lighting and exhibition space go to Ikebana.   

So please forgive what I'm going to say.  I'll  take the hits as Ikebana practitioners lob their pin frogs at me- I don't get it and I don't understand why I don't get it.  Like a prospective date it has everything on paper that is appealing; nature, our relationship with nature, metaphor- but when I see it, there is no chemistry. Admiring most things Japanese, this is a puzzle.


Look for yourself:
http://www.ikebanahq.org

Back to the question:Is this composition Ikebana? 

Of the many differant schools, the Sogetsu school seems to allow the most creative interpretation and the most freedom. However the Sogetsu Society offers a book titled, "The Fifty Principles of Sogetsu", so now the Sogetsu practitioners are having a good belly laugh. They are saying "you're embarrassing yourself, grasshopper; better quit while you're ahead!".

Waiting for flowers to bloom

In the meantime there is always grapefruit and broccoli to play with.

It's January 16, 2016; do you know where your Pointsettia is?

In the trash, composted? It's so over. Don't you feel badly for this flower? No- well okay. But it gets a very short window of attention during the holiday season and then we really don't want to see it till next year. It is handily whisked out of sight after Dec 31. 

Too bad that this flower (well, technically the tiny middle flowers are gone, but the ivory bracts remain) can't be used for a longer season. Maybe we need a Poinsettia Challenge.

 The first time I saw a Poinsettia growing out of the ground, I was wearing a tank top over my bathing suit and headed to the beach. The tree was about 30 ft. tall with a silhouette like an open umbrella and topped with abundant red bracts (the blossom is the tiny yellow center). It was definitely an OMG moment and my brain was trying to reconcile ho,ho,ho with the sweat of a humid Floridian summer day, dampening (er, hydrating) my skin. If you live in the south, you are probably yawning by now- so what, just another poinsettia tree. It was quite an revelation for a geeky, plant loving, Maryland girl.

A Brief, but very, very, compelling Poinsettia History 
(distilled from 10 websites)

The tree is Native to Central American and Southern Mexico, hence it's comfort in the Florida landscape. The Aztecs used the plant for a purplish/red dye for textiles, cosmetics from the plant's bracts (what we think of as the flowers), and a milky sap made into a preparation for fevers. Contrary to popular belief, it's mildly toxic, but not poisonous.

How it became associated with Christmas? 

By a miracle, some would say: In the 16th century, a poor Mexican boy or girl (depending on the source) despaired that they had only weeds to present at Christmas services. As this offering was made by a child of pure heart, the bouquet burst into blooms of brilliant red, and hence became known as Flowers of the Holy Night.

 How it came to this country?

Joel Roberts Poinsett was the first Ambassador appointed to Mexico from 1825-29 by President Madison. Besides being a United States Congressman and ambassador, Dr. Poinsett was founder of the National Institute for the Promotion of Science and the Useful Arts, predecessor of the Smithsonian Institution. Yeah, Type A for sure.

And he was also an amateur botanist. While visiting the Taxco area in 1828, he became enchanted by the brilliant red blooms. 
He sent some of the plants back to his greenhouses in South Carolina, where he began propagating the plants and sending them to friends and botanical gardens.

Flash Forward

From 1923-1990, the Ecke family had a virtual monopoly on pointsettias owing to a technique that made their plants fuller and more attractive. A University researcher discovered this method in 1991, opening up the market. As of 2008 the Ecke family still served about 70 percent of the domestic market. 

December 31

Winter, not quite whites.
Happy New Year, everyone. 
Here we go!

 

The morning after/ I am my Mother's daughter

 

The whipped cream doesn't come off my fingers very easily as I attempt to wash it off. I found a smear of it on a metal container sitting next to the incredible Buche de Noel (AKA Yule Log) that Anna Maria made. This was during clean up the morning after our Full Moon/Chirstmas Potluck Extravaganza. Whip cream fingers sent me to the sink for removal. The whipped cream persists, requiring soap and vigorous scrubbing. I contemplate what it does to my throat that objects to eating cream. It swells up a little and generally lets me know this is not a good food for this body. But every now and then it is so worth it.

Our extended family of friends put so much care into their  dishes. If I were truly my mother's daughter I would have made the whole dinner, baked a dozen varieties of cookies and decorated the house till it was completely bejeweled with decorations and lights and a sea of presents. My mother's finest hour came when she discovered that she could adhere Christmas balls to the ceiling with museum putty.

I didn't bake any cookies and only made a portion of the meal. But Jon and I did move the furniture around to accommodate 11, reupholster kitchen seat covers, rehang  art and  mirrors and give the house an industrial strength cleaning  for our friends who came despite their cat allergies. The highlight for me is playing with the flowers to make little vignettes. Everything else is merely the backdrop, the place to put the flowers and other botanical wonders. Flowers, flowers, flowers. At moments like these I hear my mother's spirit whispering in my ear;  just one more little something for over here and over there what about...? 

My sister and I have always wondered why we never felt the desire to recreate the Christmas tradition of our mother. Ours is very pared down comparatively. My experience was that there was a cost in our household of extreme stress and anxiety. My dear mamma had every good intention to create a magical experience for her 3 kids.   Sadly I came away with a bad taste for that kind of excess that has always lasted. This holding back is  not necessarily good in creative lines of work. Part of creative work is excess, sloppy, pushing the boundaries.

Bringing together friends and family (when possible) for a special dinner has become the heart of my Christmas experience, more important than any gift under the tree. This year my preparations went up a notch and I find myself in my mother's territory of over the top-ness, nothing like hers to be sure, but pushing my comfort zone. I learned something about letting go in creating my own version wholeheartedly but not going so crazy I was too tired to have fun at my own party. Hallelujah!

 

Deck the Halls, I forgot the holly

But that's because it's not native around here and it's inclusion seems to make more sense in other parts of the country, at least in the northeast where holly trees abound. To come across a holly tree in the grey leafless northern forest is quite dramatic to the eye.  And there is that pokey aspect; I would have been running around daubing people with peroxide and handing out cute little Christmas themed band-aids. 

So for our wreath making workshop, I brought a smorgasbord of the greens from our hood: Olive, Doug Fir, Redwood, Red Toyon, Privot, Eucaplytus.... There were a lot of people new to wreath making and all happily plunged in. Then a number sort of stalled for awhile, getting their bearings. 

Then it was as if someone pressed the play button and off they went. Not everyone's got photographed and that is my bad, I'm sorry about that, because each and every one deserved it's wreath moment in the spotlight. Thanks everyone. I hope to see you next year for round 2!

Y Oh Y and other post-Thanksgiving musings

When will I ever learn? Do not walk away from the nuts. I hope you enjoyed some moments of lightness and gratitude this Thanksgiving. I had a nice one too, thanks (after roasting more pecans). We were a smaller group this year; a fine variation, cozy and intimate. 

My friends/extended family hosted again. So I got away without making a turkey another year. Yay!  I know it's just a big roast chicken but it's daunting. See what happened to the nuts?

I saw a girlfriend the next day and asked if she enjoyed the gathering she went to. "It sucked", she said in her proper British accent. "I felt so alone, but I wasn't alone". We commiserated about lost family and friends. Yeah, tis the season for feeling overwhelmed and sad, maybe missing people and feeling left out if you were brought up in a Christmas centric family- or weren't and wanted to be part of the magic you thought everyone else was feeling but you. 

 It's okay. It's okay. Only 5 more weeks to go. Take this holiday season and plan your strategy: full embrace, leave town, dedicate yourself to doing something, anything that lifts you out of your frame of mind. You know where I'll be; trying to work my way through it with flowers and creating beauty/flower medicine with and for others.

 

 

Viva La France

Sadly, there are a lot more flowers on the streets of Paris this week. Flowers procured and offered to signify that people are bearing witness to a terrible tragedy. My  singling out of the terrorist attacks on French soil starting with the attack of cartoonists and staff at the French Satirical Magazine, Charlie Hebdo nearly a year ago is personal. As an artist, a fundamental contribution to my aesthetic sense has been in studying the history of French art and design. On French soil, many movements brought forth paintings we think of as beautiful today, but were at times visually jarring and revolutionary at the time they were created, often challenging the way people thought about art. And it is the present day freedom to challenge and question other ideologies that I hold essential for a democracy. Whew, enough politics for a little flower blog. 

I'm not on the streets of Paris to lay these flowers down (and breathing more easily because of it) but the desire to contribute a personal offering lingered. The intention sat brewing in the back of my mind as I went about my business which took me into a store that might have a few vases now and again. 

I kept returning to this pitcher. It is crude and beat up but has intention and was oddly compelling in that ugly/beautiful way. What function would dictate a front spout that looked like it had been smashed in, compressed?  When I turned it over and saw that it was MADE IN FRANCE, it seemed incongruous- not very chic, not very French- really?  A little delving proved that it is indeed French and made in the early 1900's.
While it's maker can't tell me the story of how it came to be and what function it's served, I am grateful for the opportunity to repurpose it back in honor of the peace loving citizens of France, whatever their ethnicity.

Celebration of Fall Workshop

What a great workshop! 
Serious students (including myself- so much to learn) continuing to practice the art and craft of floral design in this flower community. Sorry to those who couldn't make it. You missed a good one!