The other day, I shared my floral experience with my friend who is quickly becoming quite the accomplished florist. There have been quite a number of schools popping up around town and over the summer months, this space is becoming quite competitive.
A lot of people don't really view flowers as something that can be an artistic expression and I think that is a mistake. Another misconception is that flowers can be thrown together and that there is no "design" behind it, or skill in making them look good. Again, I think that is also a mistake. Most of these misconceptions come from ignorance because we simply don't know or understand enough about this field of work to make informed commentary -- and yet we do.
So, it's a really good thing that my friend can bring me in for a closer inspection of what is really going on behind floral design.
Take today's activity for example. Making floral broochs for a variety of occasions. Until you get married, you don't really have a reason to think about what kind of brooch will be used but it actually marks a statement and compliments each individuals personality.
Flowers also pair up with people's personalities really nicely because the different qualities of the flower tend to give visual cues of people's individual characters. A lot of abstraction is present in picking the right flower for the right person, and then there's the issue of aesthetics over absolute representation.
Suddenly, you realise that every part of the design process mimics that of any regular design work and a lot of thought has to go into the details.
Does that not then, make this line of work an art?
I certainly think it does.