March 23: Bloom N Art, the collaboration between Bromfield School and the Garden Club, opens at Fivesparks in two days. Yikes!
Today I have joined a small group going into the flower market in Chelsea to buy flowers for their arrangements. I am focused on red carnations. In the past week I received several emails from arranger friends telling me places where there were NO red carnations. So this has to be it. We arrive at the warehouse building and I am overwhelmed by the vast array of flowers inside. Like a laser beam, my eyes scan the colors. I see a spot of bright red across the room, and I make a beeline. And, yes, it’s the beautiful red carnations of my vision! But, compulsively, I go around to other vendors, making sure those are the very best red carnations available. It turns out they are the only ones. I grab them and some other flowers, including the ones that will be “white polka dots” in my arrangement.
That evening I decorate my container—I’ve ditched the meatloaf pan in favor of a less culinary container someone loaned me. I found some red and white letters at Staples, and I stick “Kusama” across the tin. And I watch in dismay as two fall off. An emergency text brings a family member wielding a glue gun. I’ve emailed my mentor, MM, and she assures me my flowers will not die overnight.
Student artist Sofi Marder and Garden Club member Carlene Phillips in front of “Homage to Kusama.” (Courtesy photo)
March 24: MM was right. The red carnations, alstroemeria, and huge white chrysanthemums are fresh and stunning. I sit staring at them, imagining them becoming the portrait of Yayoi Kusama, the famous artist who is the subject of my chosen student artwork. Arrangements are due by noon. We may bring in completed pieces or work during the morning at tables set up at Fivesparks. I choose the latter because I need MM’s help. I rush around trying to find something safe in which to transport my flowers. I grab a cooking pot and empty a pail of its mop and bottles.
I see women coming into the building with fabulous arrangements, and my confidence deflates. Some other newbies are here, but they’re all busily working. I stare at my container and my flowers, and I am immobilized. Fortunately, MM appears and offers me a suggestion: “Start with the face.” I see why experienced arrangers say not to get attached to one idea before you see what flowers you have to work with, because, ironically, it is alstroemeria, not red carnations, that get the crucial role as Kusama’s hair. As I work away, I see my vision emerge—only a bit distorted by reality. People walk by and offer encouraging words. I suddenly realize the worry is gone and I’m having fun.
I could go on tweaking—I could also make it all fall apart—so I’m glad when the time is up. I’m about the only person left besides the co-chairs of the Bloom N Art event, AnaMaria Nanra and Marijke Vallaeys, who will have the challenge of figuring out which arrangements will go where in the building. I take a quick walk around and am astounded by the gorgeous creations. I think back to when I was choosing my artwork, and I find it so interesting to see how other people have beautifully and cleverly captured all the pictures I thought would be impossible.
March 25: The show opens at 10 a.m. I can’t shake the niggling fear that letters in my arrangement will have come unstuck or, worse, that flowers will have fallen over. I am relieved when my daughter and son-in-law send me a picture from the exhibit and I see Kusama is intact, looking good against a black background.
March 26: I am at the desk at Fivesparks as a greeter, and I am hoping “my” student artist, Sofi, might come today and I will have a chance to meet her. From the beginning I have admired her portrait and been curious as to why she chose Yayoi Kusama as her subject. I am so hoping she won’t be disappointed with what I’ve done. There are people coming and going, and I’m overhearing comments about how amazing everything is. A friend appears. “Your artist is here,” she tells me. I am excited to meet Sofi and her family. She tells me she lived in Tokyo until five years ago and that she has long admired Kusama’s art. She describes the complicated process by which she used Photoshop and other tools to make her portrait. She compliments my arrangement, pointing out what she thinks mirrors parts of her work. I am so happy Sofi likes what I did. And I realize—for the first time, really—that I like what I did too.
I’m glad I took up the challenge. As I stumbled through the process, MM, other fellow arrangers, and friends were wonderfully supportive; I always knew people would be there to help me. Now my only regret is a useless meatloaf pan.
Find a complete gallery of pictures from the show, taken by Patrick Vallaeys, at bloomnart.online.
Carlene Phillips, author of “A Common History: The Story of Harvard’s Identity,” is a regular feature writer who pauses from time to time to reflect on the humor in the everyday.
