This week is dedicated to achieving simple happiness in life; I am not talking about food.
I want to explain how a simple box full of embossed flowers brought life to our flower show at the Crawford County Fair. "Our" refers to the Earth Wind Flower Garden Club.
The first lesson of the flower show with the theme of "Museum Night" was named "Giverny's Artist's Garden" by Claude Monet. It requires the designer to make embossed pictures.
Now, almost everyone has heard of Impressionism. When we arrived at Monet in the sixth grade art class, we focused on his work and watched a video about his garden near Paris. Recalling that the students drew the version of "pat, pat, pat and smear" from their own world, and gave me directions.
This memory led me to fill in a small piece of paper that fits into a frame measuring 8 inches by 10 inches. A box of pressed materials has been with me for many years. It has a lot of small flowers of red verbena and blue delphinium.
Yes, there are many other items—many broken—but still in usable forms. My decision was to use embossing in the flowing color layer to resemble impressionist painting.
On the same day I finished, Julie Rexroad sent a text message; she wanted to know if I had any suppression material. affim. She came to the back of the box with kindness.
When the evening to prepare the entries for the flower show arrived, Julie showed up with the box and said that she didn't have time to make one. But she immediately urged Amy Vaughn to piece together one of the picture frames she had. "What should I do?" Amy asked.
Don't want to make entries wrong, I pointed out that the frame exceeds the size limit. I grabbed a piece of paper and cut it to fit the appropriate size frame. In the next few minutes, Amy pulled out the tips of some yarrow leaves and various ferns and placed them vertically.
This is her "forest". The blue delphinium flower suggested water, and then she added a "cloud" of faded pansies. She was very satisfied with the result, so I promised to bring a photo frame the next morning.
When Amy glued the flowers in place, Janet Nance became interested and began to choose attractive works. She carried these in a bag and planned to bring a framed item the next day.
Julie is watching and listening to all this. When we all finished our work, Julie decided to take the box home again to try her luck.
This is great because there are four entries in this embossing class on Monday morning. Janet finally created a red verbena cross with a white flower representing the purity of Christ. The petals of the blue delphinium floated down as if washed by rain, and the torn petals of carnations shed symbolic blood.
As for Julie, she bubbled in with an interpretation of the seascape, too smart. Schools of fish appeared on blue petals and pale green leaves, one of which suggested a jellyfish. At the bottom, dusty mill fragments resemble plants, perhaps corals, and seem to be fixed by various stones.
When I think about the efforts of each club member, I realize that their spirit brings creativity and the most affirmative self-expression. This is what art is all about!
Mary Lee Minor is a member of the Earth, Wind, and Flower Garden Club, an accredited master gardener, a flower show judge of the Ohio Garden Club Association, and a former sixth grade teacher.
Post time: Aug-03-2021