Whenever someone tells me, "Your flowers are so beautiful," - it sounds like a sweet melody to my ears. Being able to create beautiful objects is the true reason I am a floral designer, and if someone else enjoys those objects, well that's a BIG bonus in my book. So how did I come by juggling water buckets and price haggling with flower vendors? Not having had the good fortune to grow up in France
, where a rigorous 4 year floristry apprenticeship is honored - and even revered - I arrived where I am today by recognizing good opportunities and learning valuable entrepreneurial skills along the way. My family and family friends encouraged me to learn about photography, art appreciation and craftsmanship when I was young. Our good friend Bill Hedrich was a great architectural photographer who had an orchid greenhouse. And my lovely mother grew the most amazing peonies and lilacs, roses and irises. I spent many hours being influenced by their artistry and craft and learned a great deal about how stuff works from all of them - including their humor! A college degree was expected in my family, so in 1978 I graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a B.A. I'm pretty certain that studying the lives and works of the great artists has helped me develop an eye for composition, light and texture, but mostly for color. Color, in a modern but also historical sense, gives shape and life to all my designs and I have those mysterious, dark slideshow classrooms to thank for that. I've been a creative collaborator of one sort or another over the years - from creating hand-colored photographs and prints for London-based publishers, Barrie and Jenkins -to writing and producing a DVD series about Côtes du Rhône wines for Inter-Rhône, the French trade alliance. But it is my love of color that propelled me to study floral design at the Southern California School of Floral Design in 2009. I do hope that in some way my work inspires you to appreciate whatever is beautiful in your life.
