Art in bloom

I went to the Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota yesterday with my dear friend Cheryl. We enjoy spending time together, so what a treat for both of us! Neither of us  remembered that Ringling in Bloom was going on . . . artful flower arrangements inspired by works of art in the museum are displayed alongside the art for just 4 days. A glimpse of one of the arrangements we saw is above. I found a short video describing one of the flower artist/arranger's process here - it's really quite interesting. So this was an added bonus to our visit to the Ringling.

I was able to take a number of photos of different arrangements with paintings and sculpture because they were in the permanent collection. You can find them here. I made sure to visit my great uncle's painting that is also in the permanent collection of the Ringling Museum, Pansies by William Glackens.

Cheryl and I went there to celebrate my birthday belatedly and to see some of the 'new' exhibits we knew were there at this time. I had never eaten in the formal restaurant Treviso, only in the Banyan Cafe'. We decided to celebrate there in Treviso and both of us enjoyed a delicious salad!  We went on to see a wonderful display of an art glass collection, an interesting photo exhibit and a very new and interesting first solo exhibition for an artist who "defies categorization", R. Luke DuBois. Cheryl and I were somewhat mesmerized by one of his film pieces, Fashionably Late for the Relationship that was playing on a continuous loop. It was shot at one speed, with a model moving very slowly and then sped up . . . We learned it was shot on a street in New York over 72 hours. Sometimes the model/actress was sleeping, other times she went behind a screen and changed clothes. Then she looked in the mirror as if she was going out. The street had a kind of an open tent set up like her bedroom/living area. The film was also layered with other filmed segments of her, like a collage. Lots of fast flashes of translucent images similar to what you were seeing. We did not watch that long, maybe 10 minutes total, but both of us found it hard to leave! Other parts of his work were musical compositions and a large film/recorded piece having to do with the two founders of Google. All very electronic and unusual. But I still enjoyed for the most part!!

There is no doubt that creativity is the most important human resource of all. Without creativity, there would be no progress and we would be forever repeating the same patterns.
~ Edward de Bono