Art in Bloom

I look forward to The Cincinnati Art Museum Art In Bloom Exhibit every year. Once a year, for just over a week, the art comes alive through the living medium of flower arranging. Dozens of talented individuals throughout the tristate pick one of the museum’s works of art and translates it through fauna and flora.

I love seeing each artist’s interpretation of the art, how it affects them, and how they use natural medium to express themselves.

When you go you get to pick your three favorites for the best arrangements. I found it challenging to limit myself to three. Do you pick the prettiest, the one that tells the best story, the best use of materials, the best use of props? It wasn’t easy to choose, so while I had to pick three at the event, I'll share several of my favorite Art in Bloom interpretations here:

Still Life with Violins and Sheet Music

I love the use of materials: the wood vase, the brown calla lilies that mimic the curves in the painting but also evoke the violin, particularly love that the artist flipped the leaves upside-down to use the brown leathery backside.

Still Life with Watermelon

I love that the artist chose to focus on the pink flesh of the watermelon and used interesting flowers to do it.

The Liberation of St. Peter

This is one of my favorites. This has great symbolism. The lilies represent the angel and the closed lily is her finger pointing toward freedom. The orange flowers are St. Peter’s robe. You can see the rings the artist used to mimic his chains falling off his arm. We got to meet the artist and he showed us the paper strings he used as the flowing robe of the angel.

The Silk Merchant

The blue and white chrysanthemums represent the people in the painting while the vertical flower arrangements represent the silk hanging in the shop.

The Underground Railroad

The Underground Railroad incorporated cotton balls into the arrangement. The sticks splattered with white are reminiscent of the birch trees in the painting.

Trees In The Setting Sun

Good use of color and I like the use of the birch logs.

Vanity Case

Could this arrangement look more like a peacock? Great use of color and shape. They absolutely nailed the profile of a peacock.

Vase

It's easy to see how this flower arrangement mimics the vase behind it. If you look closely you’ll see the buildings hidden inside the glass globes that relate directly to the paintings on the vase.

Verdin Bell

This is a bright and colorful painting of Verdin Bell, with a flower arrangement that was inspired by the molten steel in the painting and now a guest artist that is reinterpreting the flowers in her painting. Not only do you get to see the flower arrangements but the museum invites guest artists as well so you can see how they work. In this case the artist assured me that the painting would “calm down” before she was done but I really like the abstract nature of it as it is.

The toes are the art. The swimsuit is the vase. The daisies are the arrangement. Great modern art interpretation.This is a really nice use of the container, reflective like the water, the fuzzy leaves as the mist and just a few flowers to represent the trees.

Inspiration comes in so many forms, like the colors of a dress, the shape of a doll, or the use of multiple layers to provide height and dimension. Check out some of these other amazing visual interpretations of artwork in the slideshow!

If you're interested in learning more about how visuals and great design can impact your retail or residential space, contact us. We take inspiration from our culture, clients, and community -- and we'd love to work with you!