Living Art I: Flow

This idea had been in my head for months, maybe years, but I never had the abundance or variety of flowers to contemplate actually doing it until now. With such a profusion of colors and forms it was an incredible experience to create an artwork using living materials, and have it be so ephemeral. 

The project started with several pieces of barn wood laid out to create the large frame - about five feet square - and wetting down the grass under the tree well to provide moisture for the flowers, then laying out the structure to create the overall framework and gradually filling in with smaller flowers and contrasting or analogous colors to fill the frame completely.

To get the whole artwork in the viewfinder required a high vantage point!

The final composition: amaranth, ammobium, cerinthe, china asters, dahlias, dill, gomphrena, kale, salvia, scabiosa, snapdragons, strawflowers, veronica, and zinnias. Throughout the construction, I misted the flowers frequently to keep everything looking fresh and hydrated. Still speed was important as the shade gradually left!