Flowers thrive in the humid salt air of Martha’s Vineyard, as do the arts, in a community with 30-some-odd galleries. This weekend at the Old Mill in West Tisbury, flowers and art fuse at Bloomin’ Art, presented by the Martha’s Vineyard Garden Club.
Modeled after the Museum of Fine Arts’ Art in Bloom show, the show will pair the works of 30 Vineyard artists with interpretive floral arrangements created by Garden Club members.
The gamut of participating artists stretches from painter Allen Whiting to photographer Alison Shaw, with a variety of medias and styles in between. This year’s show includes sculptors and fiber artists. “With the exception of a few talented Garden Club members, all artists considered must be professional, affiliated with a gallery, and have a Vineyard connection,” said Linda Chapman, Communications Chairman of the Garden Club. Artists choose which piece of work they would like to exhibit.
Garden Club members then volunteer to create arrangements based on a color photograph of the artwork they are to interpret. An arrangement workshop helps them to “identify the colors, shapes, textures, and moods of the artwork they are assigned, and discuss how flowers and other plant materials could express a connection and harmony with a work of art,” Ms. Chapman said. The arrangers gather materials from home gardens, farmers’ markets, “even the side of the road.”
The end result is an installation of flowers and artwork that celebrates both the artist’s hand and the gardener’s green thumb.
The exhibit opens to the public on Saturday, June 29, from 10 am to 5 pm, and will continue on Sunday, June 30, from 12 noon to 3 pm.
For more information on Bloomin’ Art or the Martha’s Vineyard Garden Club, visit marthasvineyardgardenclub.org.
