Flowering Friday: Cross-Pollination

There was something blooming at the Milwaukee Art Museum on Thursday night.

Design by Pam Borgardt/Milaegers, inspired by Boating on the Yerres by Gustave Caillebotte

On display was Art in Bloom, an annual — and brief — exhibit that, according the museum's website for the exhibit, "features art-inspired floral displays." Given the fragile nature of the flowers, the exhibit only runs through this Sunday. (If you aren't in Milwaukee, check your local museum — many museums around the country sponsor this kind of exhibit annually.)

Design by Judy Newman/Elmbrook Garden Club, inspired by Triple Profile Portrait by Lucas de Heere

It was so fun to see how the various designers connected with the art to inspire their creations. And it got me to thinking on how really nothing we create is truly original.

Everything that we create is influenced by myriad influences. And yet what we create is our wholly our own — our unique expression, our unique synthesis of influence and individuality.

And even though there isn't anything proverbially new to say, our expression — be it art, a book, or the way you "be" in the world — is vitally needed. Because you are an original and no can express what it is you express.

The first place winner was this above design by Denise Gehrke, Waukesha Floral & Greenhouse, inspired by Northwood III by Kenneth D. Snelson.

I, for one, find this perpetual cross-pollination and hybridizing to be inspiring.

I get inspired by something you do. I create something from it that is uniquely mine. And then someone else creates from that. And on and on and on it goes.

Design by Green Tree Garden Club, inspired by Crying Girl by Roy Lichtenstein

I find that once you start to look for inspiration. You find it everywhere.

Because really everything — anything — can be inspiration.

Design by Milwaukee Organic Gardening Club, inspired by Ruin by NAM June Paik

To begin seeing inspiration everywhere is part of being present and being connected to the true flow of life, which is always growing and always expanding.

Design by Christopher Dobs/Urban Sense, inspired by Poppies by Georgia O'Keeffe

I invite you to look around you today and look for the inspiration.

It could be in art. Or in Target. Or in something you child says to you. Or in way the light dances on the countertop.

Take a moment to notice the inspiration.

Design by Deb Karpfinger/The Flower Lady, inspired by Big Head by Karel Appel

Then tell me, where did you find inspiration today and how can you use it as a springboard for your own creations?

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Flowering Fridays is a weekly look at flowers through the lens of what they might teach us about flowering fully in our life. Past editions are here.

Comments

[Kris]

Shannon,

These arrangements are exquisite, as are your photos of them. So beautiful--thanks for posting them. I'm inspired just looking at them.

And I'll be back to look again on Sunday when it's snowing--I'll need that color to counterbalance our spring snows.

Kris

[Shannon]

Kris,
Thanks! I am in Florida now enjoying real live flowers growing on plants!! I will send flower love to you tomorrow in Wisconsin if it snows!!!
:-)
Shannon