Art in Bloom at PMA

A Preview of Spring, Juxtaposed Against Artwork

Each year, the Portland Museum of Art (PMA) holds a special "Art in Bloom" event that brings together florists, farmers, and artists. During Art in Bloom, the museum is alive with fragrant blooms, extravagant multi-hued displays, and incredible floral installations of all types—each inspired by a selected artwork from the museum’s collection. At a time when the days are slowly getting longer but winter's chill refuses to release its grasp, this week-long celebration is eagerly awaited for its heavenly floral smells and pops of color making it the perfect exhibit to celebrate the start of Spring. I love visiting the museum anytime of year, but Art in Bloom is my springtime tradition. As always, I enjoy seeing how the various florists interpret and re-imagine their chosen artwork using flowers and other natural ingredients to create their arrangements. With some of the floral displays you immediately knew which art piece was being represented, others were not as obvious in their design and implementation but nonetheless were still beautiful and thought provoking. 

Of the 20 designs and respective designers, two really stood out to me. Kate Lovins' interpretation of Grace George Hartigan's "Don Quixote and Madame Butterfly" used florals to represent the painting's murderous red, inky black, sickly beige with hints of explosive yellow and stormy eggplant, as Kate calls these colors. She also said she was captivated by the chartreuse that occupies most of the painting and was drawn to this piece for its vibrant and evocative use of color. Her floral arrangement certainly did evoke those colors and style of the painting. 

The other piece was Michael Silvia's entry based on Bernard Langlais' Animal Farm, a wonderful wooden collage work using a variety of rustic and distressed wood pieces. The artwork is one of my favorites in the PMA's collection. The floral arrangement had a wooden fence container that was a literal homage to the wooden pieces of the collage. The color palette of the florals echoed the subtle tones of Langlais' work and were offered in a variety of textures and interesting forms. Due to the striking tropical florals, this was also a crowd favorite. 

I spent a delightful 3 hours at the Museum. I was pleased to see the multitude of visitors of all ages that were there for this special exhibit. You could see obvious joy in their faces as they wandered around taking in the variety of PMA’s vast collection of artwork supplemented by these 20 amazing floral installations that created this year’s Art in Bloom. While we will have to wait another year for the next Art in Bloom, the Portland Museum of Art is always a special place to visit anytime, any season, and on Fridays the museum is open for free from 4:00pm to 8:00pm.