I gave a flower talk on Saturday night for the members of American Chinese Cultural Association. They are a group of highly educated and knowledgeable individuals. When the talk ended, they asked if I could critique some of the pictures of ikebana arrangements with them, so they could get a sense of the different school styles, and know what is a good arrangement and what type of mistakes to avoid. Actually, it is not fair to critique the picture instead of the actual arrangement since the arrangement in the picture could be very different from the real thing. One dimension is lost and the viewer can only see the picture from the angle in which the camera sees. When you critique, it is also important to remove the emotion and personal taste, and try to be objective. With that in mind, we studied the pictures together. We had fun together until 11:30pm (the talk started at 7pm).
After we went through some pictures, the audience picked up on the school styles. Often they could give me the school name immediately after I showed a new picture. That gave me an idea for this blog. I plan to give you some typical pictures from one school at a time and later I will give you a quiz to ask you to identify the styles.
In the following links you can learn about the Sogetsu school:
http://www.ikebanahq.org/sogetsu.htmlhttp://www.sogetsu.or.jp/english/index.htmlHere are three arrangements by the local Sogetsu school members:
Did you notice anything in common in those arrangements?
Enjoy the arrangements and Happy Monday!
In Friendship through Flowers,
Yirou.
很快会有本文的中文版
Did you notice anything in common in those arrangements?
2 comments:
Very interesting outlook. I can usually tell the school when it is a mixed exhibition and my husband is surprised, but I think you showed it is possible.
I have to admit it is not always true, as sometimes with free style there is some overlap. It is more the type of material different schools choose that can give a hint.
Welcome to Happy Monday community!
Wow, I am very impressed! Yes, if it is free style, it is hard to tell. I could not tell them all myself.
For this one, it is kind of easy by the materials, especially I picked pictures which are typical Sogetzu :-).
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