This year’s Bouquets to Art at San Francisco’s de Young Museum was another wonderful year of Bay Area floral designers matching their skills with the museum’s works of art. This year I was extra impressed with the Mrs. piece that she did by herself for Michael Daigian Design, largely because of the piece of artwork she chose.

Anti-Mass is the name of the art work and it consists of burnt wood from a church which is suspended so that they look like they are floating in air.  When she told me this was the piece that she request and got I looked at my wife a bit quizzically (more like “are you nuts?”) but she wanted to challenge herself and eventually her inspiration struck when she came across some cactus stalk skeletons that looked ashen grey.  Pairing those with flame like flowers at the base  and what is one of the coolest pedestals I’ve seen makes for a winning arrangement (yes, I know I’m biased).

I also really liked her co-worker’s piece which paired nicely with the The Niagara River at the Cataract painting. He used clear plastic as a pedestal to integrate clusters of succulents and air plants right into the painting itself (they’re on the left…).

I had an entire afternoon to browse as many of the works as possible. It did seem to me that this year there were a lot of floral designs that literally imitated the artwork, more than in past years.  Either way the event is one of the most popular of the year at the de Young Museum. You can view additional floral designs from the event at my 2012 Bouquets to Art gallery where prints can be purchased or images licensed.