Old ladies like flowers and art.

I’ve recently been wondering if maybe I’m an old lady. In New York, during a trip to the New York Botanical Garden, it occurred to me that the majority of tourists who travel to New York and spend a day at a botanical garden are old ladies.

And this weekend, I once again found myself surrounded by old women. I went to Art in Bloom at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts (UMFA). The museum was packed top to bottom with experienced women. Women in expensive dresses and plenty of lipstick. Women with big hats. These are ladies who lunch. And they like their art with flowers.

Here’s the premise for Art in Bloom: ask a whole bunch of florists to choose a work currently on display at UMFA and create a floral arrangement based on the painting, sculpture, or object. Then they display the floral arrangements next to the original works. Call me an old lady, but the event was fun. So here are a few of my favorites.

Gary Vlasic of Working Class Productions stole the show with his dramatic take on Leda and the Swan by French artist Jules Pierre Roulleau.
Michael Stephens from Paletti gets credit for two reasons. First he chose as his inspiration Albert Beck Wenzell’s Two Women, one of my favorite paintings at the museum. And the roses were spectacular, “on the fat side.”

Taking a Tatanua Helmet Mask as inspiration, Karen Buresh of Chesa Verde used unusual materials to create this intriguing display.