Art in Bloom: Art-inspired floral arrangements on display at River Campus

With plentiful April showers, the mood is now set for beautiful May flowers.

The Cape Girardeau Council of Garden Clubs, in cooperation with the Visual Arts Co-op, will enhance the mood Saturday with "Art in Bloom."

The event brings together artists to create visually stunning displays using flowers. Floral designers involved in the council chose a piece of artwork from the co-op's annual show in March and used the work as inspiration for a flower arrangement.

The elaborate arrangements will be displayed next to the original artwork during "Art in Bloom" from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the atrium at the River Campus.

The pieces the floral artists will be interpreting range from the abstract to landscapes and other natural subjects featured in paint, photograph, fabric or sculpture.

"We have 17 different pieces of artwork and 17 different designs," said Elena Perryman, past president of the Ramblewood Garden Club and second vice president of the council.

Participants in the event vary in age and background, but "most of the designers are garden club members from the three different garden clubs of Cape Girardeau," Perryman said.

The three garden clubs that form the Garden Club Council of Cape Girardeau are the Ramblewood Garden Club, Rose Hills Garden Club and Four Seasons Garden Club.

Ramblewood Garden Club member Nadine Davis signed up for Art in Bloom and is basing her arrangement on a large vertical photograph by Victor Kantchev.

"You see the tops of the mountains at the top, and then it comes down through the valley with wildflowers and rocks," Davis said. "I'm using a piece of driftwood and I'm going to repeat the theme in the photograph. The photograph itself is very tall -- probably 5 to 6 feet tall -- and it's only 2 feet wide."

Davis chose the photo and instantly developed an idea.

"When I picked the photograph, my piece of wood came to mind immediately," Davis said. "I've carried this piece of wood from the mountaintop in Montana and gotten it to Missouri, and I've used it in displays before."

Davis said the piece of driftwood is nearly 5 feet tall, and will make a great base for her work, which along with others will help promote the garden council.

The Cape Girardeau Council of Garden Clubs was formed in 1955, and has helped to keep the Cape Girardeau area attractive and promoted horticulture studies since its founding.

"We give out two scholarships a year," Perryman said. In addition to providing the scholarships, the council stays busy in the dirt.

"We support the Rose Garden at Capaha Park and the Red House down on the riverfront and the River Heritage Museum on Independence and Frederick," Perryman said.

The council has planted trees for Habitat for Humanity and on Arbor Day, the council plants a tree at a different elementary school.

The groups have held an Art in Bloom event one other time -- in 2006 -- but the ideas has been around for a while, Perryman said.

"Art in Bloom has been going on since 1967. It originated in Boston, and they are holding them all across the nation. St. Louis usually has one, and they have one in Columbia, Missouri," she said. "They are well-attended events, usually in larger metropolitan cities with large museums."

Perryman is responsible for fundraising for the council, and thought that trying the Art in Bloom event again in the town could be a great boost to the community and the Garden Club Council of Cape Girardeau.

Tickets for Saturday's event are $10 and available at the door, or by contacting Perryman at 576-9490 or any of the garden club members.