Tag Archives: DeYoung Museum

The Special Event: The Road to Tampa

March 6th, 2012

We thought you’d appreciate reading Emily’s post from the {ISES Northern California} blog this week. She was asked to reflect on her experience as the winner of a highly sought after scholarship to attend {The Special Event} this year. Enjoy!
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It’s not everyday that you have the opportunity to immerse yourself with the world’s best and brightest event professionals! As the winner of our chapter’s {TSE Scholarship}, I embraced all that {The Special Event Conference} had to offer in January 2012.

Soulflower’s Emily Dreblow with Shannon Murphy from the {de Young Museum} and Dani Lamas from the {Legion of Honor} at TSE Starts Here!

I went in curious about the hype, ready to roll up my sleeves and bring back some new insights and ideas. I hadn’t realized that it would be such an inspiring week. Here are just a few highlights from my experience:

It was a pleasure getting a chance to know members of {ISES chapters} from all over the country and world. ISES is such a strong community even outside the Bay Area, that every time I mentioned interest in doing work in another city or country, the response was often, “Have you contacted local ISES members in that city?” I was so impressed with the level of comraderie and genuine interest in each other and that affirmed why I find our chapter to be such a tremendous asset to my work.

The Special Event brings together all of the various special events trade associations such as ISES, NACE, WIPA and MPI that the experience and expertise ‘in the room’ at The Special Event was of such high caliber. This offered the chance to ask questions and explore ideas that I rarely have the opportunity to ask around operations, financial management, design concepts and innovative marketing ideas.

I also enjoyed getting to spend time with various members from {ISES Northern California} and {ISES Napa-Sonoma} that I wouldn’t have otherwise had the opportunity. Strengthening existing relationships and developing new ones is such an important aspect of doing great work and collaboration. I look forward to more opportunities like this in the Bay Area, perhaps I’ll join the ISES board!

For anyone considering {ISES Eventworld} in August or {The Special Event} next January, I highly recommend it for great networking and learning opportunities as well as to re-ignite yourself in such a dynamic industry!

To view the original post please visit the {ISES Northern California} blog. We hope you enjoyed hearing about her time in Tampa for The Special Event Conference and perhaps we’ll see some of you there next year!

Cheers,
Lydia

Channeling Cristobal Balenciaga

July 15th, 2011

As many of you know, Cristobal Balenciaga was the highly acclaimed Spanish fashion designer. He was famed for his inventive haute couture fashion design and had a recent exhibition at the de Young Museum featuring a 120-piece retrospective. In May, the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco Board of Trustees had their welcome dinner celebration for their newest members. This special occasion was themed around the Balenciaga exhibit and included florals by Soulflower Floral Design.

Soulflower owner, Emily Dreblow, remarks on the event: “It was truly an honor to provide florals to the de Young and Legion of Honor’s Board of Trustees. For an incredibly sophisticated group with such high regard for the arts, I am flattered to be able to add our sense of style and channel Balenciaga’s flair for drama. We chose to take a monochromatic approach with the dramatic use of large black tropical leaves coupled with fuchsia, ‘Coral’ and ‘Red Charm’ peonies and speckled tiger orchids.”

Just seeing the event’s photos makes me want to dance the flamenco and drink Spanish wine! If you missed this exhibition, there’s still plenty of time to enjoy Picasso’s fine work.

Viva Balenciaga!

Lydia

Bouquets to Art 2011

March 18th, 2011

The 27th Annual Bouquets to Art features 150 floral arrangements by prominent Bay Area designers and garden clubs, to interpret and complement the museum’s permanent collection. Bouquets to Art is the largest fundraiser held to benefit the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, and one of the country’s premier floral events.

Soulflower Floral Design is thrilled to return as an exhibitor for our third year in row! It is always an honor and an artful challenge to participate in the week-long exhibition. This year, we were given a favorite piece of artwork to interpret and base our creation: Henry Moore’s Reclining Figure, No. 9. According to the de Young, Moore was profoundly influenced by the reclining figure depicted in a Toltec-Maya Chac Mool sculpture and that became the primary motif for his subsequent work. Moore believed that his compositions provided new ways of relating to the landscape, stating, “Sculpture is a mixture of the human figure and landscape, a metaphor of the relationship of humanity with the earth.”

For our Bouquets to Art piece, we chose to do a vertical interpretation and embrace the organic, modern and undulating feel of Moore’s sculpture. Bridging between the masculine and feminine qualities and the inherent relationship between humanity and nature, we brought together several natural elements, textures and colors such as succulents, moss, balsa wood flowers and unique foliage. With sustainability in mind, chose materials that are the longest-lasting cut flowers as well as many elements that can be replanted and reused. Here are a few images from our day installing the piece.

We joked on-site that it was like the ‘Top Chef’ of Floral Design because we have such limited time inside the museum and strict guidelines as to what you can use inside the museum. The conservator sheriffs are on patrol, not kidding! to inspect every item that enters the museum to protect against pests that may come in on wood, feathers, various fabrics and other materials. We were asked to special treat our balsa wood flowers made from tapioca root prior to entering the museum. Here we are relieved to have found the perfect placement near our piece, but within enough distance should there be an earthquake, it would not damage Moore’s beautiful bronze.

Ta-da! Our completed Bouquets to Art piece

Special thanks to SF Brides Magazine for sharing our piece on their blog! For more information about the exhibit, go to the Bouquets to Art website.

We hope that you will have a chance to enjoy this amazing exhibition before Saturday evening or again in 2012!

Bouquets to Art 2010

July 26th, 2010

A few months ago we developed a piece for the San Francisco De Young Museum’s floral exhibit: Bouquets to Art. We were honored to be a part of the exhibit and were assigned a very well-known photo by Arthur Trees, ” Bride and Groom” and charged to interpret the artwork in flowers. Here are our process photos from the initial sketch to constructing the final piece – so fun!