The Bouquets to Art 2013 Centerpiece

Every year for Bouquets to Art, one lucky floral designer is chosen to create the exhibition's centerpiece, which is typically a large scale floral installation in Wilsey Court, right in the heart of the de Young museum. This year, the committee chose Svenja Brotz from Chestnut & Vine for this project, and commissioned her to create a piece inspired by the Dutch Golden Age, to go with their current exhibition of Dutch paintings from the Mauritshuis, including the famous “Girl with the Pearl Earring.” Svenja created an amazing, 16-foot tall structure filled with the most beautiful yellow roses, gerberas, cymbidium orchids, anthuriums, football mums, carnations and craspedia, accented with gold-painted succulents. The piece featured a stunning solid slab of monkey pod wood on one side, and high-gloss polished metal on the other, and was a real show-stopper.

I had a wonderful opportunity to help Svenja and her team with this piece, and am still totally in awe about how smoothly it came together and how stunning it looked in the space. Below are a few pictures from the installation, and the de Young created this cool time-lapse video of the construction process.

The 16-foot tall golden column really stood out in the restrained architecture of the de Young's central foyer, and created a focal point opposite Gerhard Richter's huge black-and-white mural “Strontium.”

During the opening gala, the piece was artfully illuminated and glowed like a beacon of yellow golden light. It also cast really interesting-looking shadows on the museum foyer's dark floor.

I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to help out with this breathtaking arrangement, and watching visitors marvel at it on numerous occasions throughout the week was just too fun. Have a good week, everybody — perhaps think about your own larger-than-life creative ambitions!