Balzer Designs

Art in Bloom: Part Two

More flowers + art today!  Which ones work for you and which ones don't?

Personally, I really responded to a lot of the vessels that the floral artists chose.  It made me think about how much the container is a part of the overall arrangement -- which also makes me think about how much frames are a part of the artwork.  I think frames are a thing that I neglect to think about.  But they do tell a story about the work.

I hope you're excited to see more flowers tomorrow!

Thanks for stopping by!

Art in Bloom: Part One

The Museum of Fine Arts, here in Boston, hosted their annual Art in Bloom weekend recently.  I've been several times and it is always one of my favorite art events, even though I know less than nothing about flowers.  Why do I like it so much?  Well, let's look at the premise: Floral artists interpret a piece of art in the museum through a floral arrangement.  I find that these floral arrangements force me to think about the art more deeply than I ever have before.  I stare at the floral arrangement and at the art piece and I think about whether or not the interpretation works for me.  And, for the next few days I'm going to ask you to do the same thing.

Here are some things I think about:

• Visual: color and shape.
• Overall: effect/emotional content.
• Tone: essence/feeling
• Flower Choices: do they evoke a sense of time/place?
• The biggest question: Does the floral arrangement reveal something unexpected about the original art piece?

Judge for yourself:

Let me know what you think!  I'll be back tomorrow with more flowers & art!

Thanks for stopping by!

Color Factory NYC

You've probably seen the photos online.  Super cool candy-colored photographs of this place called "The Color Factory."  It was a West Coast thing for a long time and then I heard that it was finally coming to NYC!  Well, I knew that I had to book tickets and go!  And so we did.  And it was super duper fun!  Take a peek:

Paper strips hanging from the sky!  Giant color buttons on the walls!

You have a timed ticket when you visit The Color Factory.  And you walk at your own pace through a variety of rooms.  You can take as much time as you like traveling through the various rooms, but you can't go backwards.  There are activities.  And food.  And drinks.

And weird enigmatic text that might be deep and might be a load of crap....

The ball pit was definitely my favorite part of the whole thing.  I was too old for ball pits when they came around in the late 80s/early 90s.  So I never went in one as a kid.  It was super fun to splash around in the balls as an adult!

Everything about the experience had a pop art element. It was super fun and I highly recommend it!

I'm always willing to be a little bit goofy, but The Color Factory 100% brought out the kid in me!  It was a place to play!

As I mentioned, there was lots of food.  The belt of macarons was straight out of my Willy Wonka fantasies.

I did a vlog back when we visited The Color Factory.  If you'd like to see the ball pit in action and hear us play beautiful music, take a peek (fast forward to the 3:13 mark if you just want to see Color Factory):

Thanks for stopping by!

Relational Undercurrents at PMA

I shared some pics from the Portland Museum of Art's Art in Bloom on Wednesday.  And I could have sworn that I've shared pics of PMA's permanent collection, but when I looked through my archives, I didn't see a post.  (FYI: You can use the search box on the blog to look for any posts you might be missing or thinking about.)  If that's true, I'll have to go spelunking for the photos from my visit last year and get them posted to share with you!

In the meantime, PMA is hosting a fantastic exhibit called "Relational Undercurrents."  It's contemporary art from the Caribbean Archipelago.  I thought I would share a few photos.  I found the exhibit beautiful and thought provoking and informational -- all the things I like art to be! Take a peek:

So now I can say my work is in a museum!  ;)

Be sure to read the info card about this next painting.  I liked the painting from afar but when I read about it, I liked it even more!


I found this piece so powerful.  A great example of visual impact versus words.  So, I'll let the art do the talking.




This last piece is an enormous installation.  This pile of rubbish takes up most of the gallery.  And it smells.  

It's meant to represent the wave of garbage -- especially plastic garbage -- that washes ashore on the Caribbean Islands.  Waves of refuse.

If you get a chance to check out PMA, it's a lovely little museum and always worth a visit.

Thanks for stopping by!

Art in Bloom at PMA

A few weeks ago, I headed up to the Portland Museum of Art (PMA) in Portland, Maine.  They were hosting their second annual "Art in Bloom."  This is an event that many museums host, where local florists and garden clubs are challenged to create floral designs inspired by specific works of art in the museum.  We took a docent-led tour of the Art in Bloom installation and it was fascinating for two major reasons:

1. The docent really wanted us to give our opinions about whether or not the floral arrangements "worked."  There was a lot of disagreement in the crowd, which was interesting.
2. The docent shared some of the parameters of the challenge with us: (1) Floral artists get to choose from a list of works.  Every single artist received their first choice this year.  (2) Water is not allowed in any of the containers, so the florists have to refresh the arrangements every day -- sometimes more than once a day.  Also: fresh flowers in Maine in February.

Take a peek at the arrangements and see if you think they "work."

I like Art in Bloom as a concept for several reasons:

• It forces me to look at artwork for a much longer time than I normally would and really consider how it was put together -- or what elements are most vital to its composition.
• It makes me think about what "inspiration" really is.  Should the arrangements be a copy of the original work of art?  Is a response to the work rather than an imitation okay?  Are the flowers meant to tell a story or simply mimic the visuals?
• It forces me to think of floral arrangements as a form of artistic expression. How obvious and yet how overlooked.
• I love seeing flowers in the museum!

I will say that Portland's Art in Bloom was not quite as impressive as the Museum of Fine Arts (2017, 2018) here in Boston.  It was smaller in scale, but I also thought the floral arrangements were lacking in imagination in many instances.  Nonetheless, a very enjoyable afternoon that I'm delighted to share with you!

Thanks for stopping by!