Flower art blooms among Japan’s stressed out men

January 27th, 2010 by Keith

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Here is a great video about men in Japan using ikebana to relieve stress. Click on the link below to read the full article:

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE60Q1TX20100127

Glorious Blooms in the Urban Summer Garden

August 23rd, 2009 by Keith

Since my partner and I moved into our current apartment six years ago we’ve been working hard on our urban backyard garden. It’s great for growing flowers to use in ikebana, and in my mind that makes them the best kind. We’ve dug up lots of the backyard(with permission from our landlords) and created a space we love and cherish. Every year brings new things and a sense of excitement before, during and at the end of the growing seasons. I try to choose plants that I know will make great flowers for ikebana, but always seem to also get things that can be difficult to use. That’s part of the challenge of ikebana, the mystery of what the outcome will be. If we knew exactly how it would turn out, some of the fun, challenge and discovery of creating would be lost.

The arrangement that you see here is made entirely with flowers from our garden . I wanted to used all blue flowers, since that has been our featured color this summer in early plantings. However I also used some violet colored flowers, and some chartreuse plant materials and I figured since they were all located together on the color wheel that they would be perfect together. I included lisianthus in both violet and white with a blue rim, blue balloon flowers, blue echinops, green spearmint and scented geranium leaves, blue angelonia and some stems of lavender. You might wonder what this arrangement has to do with ikebana, and there is a good answer. This would be considered a Moribana arrangement which literally means “piled up”. If you would like to know more about ikebana , you can visit Ikebana International.

8th North American Sogetsu Seminar-Exhibition

May 9th, 2009 by Keith

8th North American Sogetsu Seminar

8th North American Sogetsu Seminar

8th North American Sogetsu Seminar

The exhibition for the 8th North American Sogetsu Seminar was a great success. I’ve posted photos from the installation of the exhibit above. The last two photos are from my group, the Sogetsu Washington,DC Branch. There are more photos already posted on my Flickr site. Click any photo above to go there. I will be adding more photos to Flickr later once I have a chance.

Color and Movement

March 2nd, 2009 by Keith

Recently I did several arrangements using some beautiful Balou cymbidium orchid blooms and kohlrabi. The light green color and almost squid-like tendrils on the kohlrabi seemed perfect for ikebana, and I loved working with them. Combined with the butterscotch coloring of the orchids, the kohlrabi was a perfect companion in color and movement. Several different arrangements were made, and lots of combinations tried. I shot these with the late afternoon sunlight for a different feel from the studio lighting shots. My hope is to bring some life into my photography. During the month of January I took a few photography classes with photographer Eliot Cohen in an effort to get to know my camera and to help me understand how to shoot better photos . Which brings me back to the various ikebana artist websites, books, and magazine articles I have been exploring. Seeing how they photograph what they are doing, and how the background setting influences their work . It’s all food for thought, and a way to think about what I want to do and how to make it work for me.

The remaining work from last week

August 31st, 2008 by Keith

Ikebana

Here are more pictures that I did last week. I really love all of them, but the one above is my favorite. The sweet japanese tea bowl was found in an antique store, exposed outdoors to the elements with other pieces that were stacked on shelves. Most of the other pieces were low end ceramics and cheap floral glass/containers relegated to the junk pile. This great piece with a personal stamp in the clay cost me only $4, but to me it is priceless.

Ikebana-Berries and Leaves

A Productive Period!

August 28th, 2008 by Keith

Freestyle Ikebana

The month of August has been a productive period for me. I’ve posted more new works that have recently been photographed, and I will post others. During the Labor Day weekend I hope to do a lot more. It’s been a lot of fun, and a much needed release of creative energy.

Ikebana-Nagiere with Berries and lillies