Team work makes the dream work
It was a whirlwind weekend based in neighborhood connectors and connections. It started with my stopping at the OYUN Studio Pop-up (Court Street and Pacific) where I fell in love with a burgundy baby alpaca sweater. And the general aesthetic of everything in this little shop. I mentioned to the salesman that my floral sensibility would compliment this designer’s approach. He put me in touch with Sanaz, the designer and owner. She and I spoke, she wanted holiday decor around her windows, as well as an upgrade to her floral arrangements (she has beautiful vases but her flowers weren’t complimenting their shape and size - that important dance I talk about when I teach.) A partnership emerged. That was Friday.
Earlier that week Claire Feuer, the intrepid daughter of my friend Wendy, who is a long time advocate for public art in multiple agencies (we knew each other from Grand Central Dances Days when she was founding director of the MTA Arts for Transit.). Maybe not so unusual that her daughter Claire started the Subway Social Club . She is clearly a community builder Claire and Wendy had taken a floral design class with me some years ago and Claire had recently joined the Brooklyn Soloists - a fantastic group of solo entrepreneurs. She asked if I would lead a tour of the Flower Market. Something I’d been thinking of doing for years. She organized a small group and we met on very rainy Saturday morning.
We started at George Rallis because they are always the first place I start. Friendly. Helpful. Especially when I was a newbie and the flower market wasn’t my place yet (even though I’d been walking through for years - the beginning of my flower “addiction”. but that’s another story.) Then we went, one by one, through the wonderland of U.S. Evergreen where Gus presides over an ever-changing forest of branches, greens of all kinds, more varieties of eucalyptus than anyone’s heard of. From there to G. Page for the most exotic (and expensive) florals - from Italy, Japan, Holland of course - you can always discover something there you won’t find anywhere else. Then to Caribbean Cuts - a mini trip to Costa Rica with floral shapes and textures like no other. Then to Jamali for everything NOT alive in the floral world. We finished at Associated - the mothership of the flower district. Before we said goodbye, one of the attendees, Aysha, asked if I ever needed help - she would love to volunteer. I told her I was doing this installation at OYUN later in the day and she agreed to join me. I had NO IDEA how lucky I was.
I got to eyeball all the floral options for OYUN as we were touring the market and went back to buy silver doo-dads, white pine boughs and some black callas. I had a plan for Oyun windows involving clamps that I would disguise (always hide your mechanics, I learned in Ikebana class.). I measured (inaccurately as it turned out) went to Bruno’s Hardware, bought ALL the 2” clamps, a curved extendable curtain rod, and, in a spontaneous moment of brilliance grabbed a roll of gorilla Duct tape just as I got to the cash register (talk about impulse purchase.)
Sanaz had a ladder but it could barely fit inside the store. Thankfully Aysha, a lawyer who teaches legal writing at Brooklyn Law School, is not only incredibly detail oriented, she is TALL. Turns out she is friends with Wendy through classes at the local Dodge Y. (Is the circle getting smaller?) Clamps were too small, we used the tape, she stood on a milk crate and got the beautiful boughs attached as I cut and handed her tape and we added lovely curlicues of tiny silver branches and pine cones.
Sanaz’ husband moved the ladder outside. He took the curtain rod Aysha had wrapped in duct tape and connected it over the door so it had some arch and spring. Perfect armature! NOT what I had envisioned - it is better!
Did I mention it was a really cold and windy night and as I was wiring the white pine boughs to the above described “armature.” Did I mention that I don’t love wiring. Even when my fingers AREN’T frozen. And then Wendy came by. With her great eye. When we decided which of our silver doodads should go over the door, she helped figure out the exact right spot. (Can you imagine how many up and down the ladder moves that would have taken…?). It really does look like a sprig of silver mistletoe! We were in spare mode placing the silver adornments around the windows. Wendy giving the thumbs up or down for proper placement. Aysha moving boughs as needed, me cutting tape and wiring, a group effort.
I got that little blast of the thing I so love about theater and dance and the creative process in general. Team work. This installation was inspired by Sanaz’ space and her choices (“ no red, no yellow, no gold…”). But what it became was a wonderful group effort (albeit masked and socially distanced.). In that moment of creating something together, I had that rush that comes when everyone is on the same page, working on the same thing, helping each other complete a task…and making it beautiful.
Team Work Makes the Dream Work.