Last weekend thoselooking for a way toescape the dreary

weather and becomeinspired by the beauty ofnature and the creativity oflocal artists found whatthey were looking for at theMilwaukee Art Museum’ssixth annual ‘Art inBloom’. This annual event,

billed as “A Tribute to Artand Flowers”, bringstogether some ofSoutheastern Wisconsin’sfinest floral designers tointerpret pieces of art fromthe museum’s collection.The result is an alreadyspectacular venue madesublime with floral fra-grance, color & form. Art inBloom has steadily gained

in popularitysince itsinception anda t t e n d a n c efor the fourdays hasgrown to over15,000. Thisyear’s eventc o i n c i d e swith the1 2 5 t hanniversary

of the Milwaukee ArtMuseum and included notonly exquisite floral dis-plays but also a gardenthemed marketplace as wellas seminars and workshopsoffered by nationally recog-nized experts in garden andfloral design. The openingnight festivities included an‘Iron Designer’Competition in which floraldesigners competed againstone another, and the clock,to create an award winningdesign.

Each year a panel of judgesselects three winners fromamong the many magnifi-cent floral designs.

The judge’s winners thisyear were:

First Place:Shades of Violet byFrantisek Kupka, floraldesign by

Alka Bhargava

Second Place: Untitled byDonald Judd, floral designby Greg Leyba, SamanthaRodgers & Ted Steffens

Third Place: Still Life withFish by Gaetano Cusati,floral design by Vicki Kunz& Karin Jamel

Honorable Mention: MissFrances Lee by FrancisCotes, floral designer byJoe Divine

Honorable Mention:Chocorua II by FrankStella, floral design byCindy Hum

Honorable Mention: Breathby Gerard Richter, floraldesign by Sarah Gutierrez& Amy Huber

Monches Farm was hon-ored to once again be invit-ed to participate in 2013.We were asked to create aninterpretation of MichaelCarl Gregorovius’ 1825painting ‘View of Danzig’

(art pieces are appointedthrough a raffle system).This painting portraysthe city’s stately townhall with its elegantclock tower rising into apeach/orange sunset sky.The evening light casts ablue shadow over theface of the building. Ourinterpretation featuredan abundance of multicolored tropical succu-lents juxtaposed with anornate bluish coloredmetal framework sym-bolizing the largestarchitectural elementin the painting, the

town hall. The orange suf-fused sunset was represent-ed by rich ginger coloredsucculents surrounding thecentral metal framework.

A visit to ‘Art in Bloom’ is agreat way to whet the gar-dener’s appetite for an anx-iously awaited spring. Nowwe’re ready for the RealThing!

Milwaukee Art Museum ‘Art in Bloom’ 2013By Zannah Crowe, Horticulturist – Monches Farm, LLC – All photos courtesy of Zannah Crowe.

Gone GardeningGone Gardening

First Place: Shades of Violet by Frantisek Kupka,floral design by Alka Bhargava

Second Place: Untitled by Donald Judd,floral design by Greg Leyba, Samantha Rodgers & Ted Steffens

Third Place: Still Life with Fish by GaetanoCusati, floral design by Vicki Kunz &

Karin Jamel

Honorable Mention: Breath by Gerard Richter,floral design by Sarah Gutierrez & Amy Huber

Honorable Mention: Miss Frances Lee by Francis Cotes, floral designer by Joe Divine

Honorable Mention: Chocorua II by Frank Stella, floral design by Cindy Hum

Interpretation of Michael Carl Gregorovius’ 1825 painting View of Danzig. Design by Zannah Crowe and

Johanna Kleckner, Monches Farm, LLC