Spring in San Diego is an amazing time of year: perfect weather, plants and flowers in bloom, and longer days to enjoy it all.
Spring also brings an event Good Earth Plants has supported for the past 15 years: San Diego’s Art Alive.
This annual fundraiser for the San Diego Museum of Art brings together floral and plant designers and art for three day celebration April 11-13, 2014. Floral designers and those in related industries (like us at Good Earth Plants) create a interpretation of a piece of art using plants and flowers as their living medium.
Jim Mumford’s “Art Alive” floral design interprets the painting “Sunday Afternoon” by Hughie Lee-Smith.a three day celebration April 11-13, 2014. Floral designers and those in related industries (like us at Good Earth Plants) create a interpretation of a piece of art using plants and flowers as their living medium.
This year, I chose the painting “Sunday Afternoon” by Hughie Lee-Smith. An African-American artist, Smith is known for his stark, bleak representations of everyday life in the South.
Also this year, our GreenScaped Buildings Operations Manager Kerry Bauer has joined us interpreting “Formation I” by painter Arthur Garfield Dove. An early modernist, Dove is often considered to be America’s first Abstract painter.
Kerry Bauer’s “Art Alive” display inteprets abstract painter Arthur Garfield Dove’s “Formation I.”
In previous years of Art Alive, I have taken my kids to see the designers’ creations. While they weren’t very impressed before our first visit, I tried to appeal to their artistic side and made it a game to decipher how the art was re-created using flowers. Is it the colors? The shapes? How did the designer use negative space? Can the flow of the design represent movement?
Both quickly caught on and started to run to the next painting or sculpture to be the first one to figure it out. Soon enough, we had a following of strangers so impressed by how well Ted and Allie understood what they were seeing, learning from us as well.
I don’t pretend to have a textbook knowledge of art, far from it. But this event does inspire me by seeing what others are creating. The best part of the event for me is reviewing the floral designs adjacent to the work of art and giving my thoughts on what the designer might have been thinking as they translated the art into their floral creation.
I encourage you to attend Art Alive 2014 this weekend and get inspired!
For more information on Art Alive 2014, visit www.SDmart.org
**Good Earth Plants and GreenScaped Buildings is hiring! Please visit our website to apply and for more information**
