Art Alive: A Blooming Talent on our Staff
Visitors from near and far flock to the San Diego Museum of Art in Balboa Park each spring for Art Alive.
This stunning exhibition features fresh floral interpretations of some of the Museum’s artworks. Selected floral designers display their work alongside the art piece that inspired them.
We’re proud to share that one of FS Design Group’s talented designers, Laura Vavrunek, has exhibited her floral designs at Art Alive three years in a row. Make sure you mark your calendars for the 2024 show, because she’s likely to participate again.
“It challenges me,” said Laura. “It taps into a different creative side and plays on color, texture, form and interpretation of the art pieces I work with.”
Laura believes her two design identities — interior and floral — inform each other.
“Like interior design, I use a lot of inspiration, imagery and examples of built spaces,” she said. “I go on a lot of walks to see what’s in season and blooming and to find inspiring gardens. My inspirations are often organic.”
Laura first learned floral design 10 years ago from a work colleague. After that, she took a formal class and practiced regularly. Now, she moonlights creating floral designs for corporate and association events. Check out her beautiful Instagram account here. #vavuumflorals
Laura has used both paintings and three-dimensional artworks as her Art Alive inspirations. The first year, her inspiration was a Japanese cloisonné vase from 1910. Her arrangement included hydrangeas, roses, carnations, delphinium and greens.
In 2021, she used Mary Cassatt’s Little Girl in a Blue Armchair painting as inspiration. She incorporated baby’s breath, lilies, mums and hydrangeas.
Last year she interpreted a Baroque style religious painting, St. Jerome, by artist Francisco de Zurbaran. This arrangement included lilies, orchids, protea and gerbera daisies to create the vertical form.
This year, she was inspired by a painting from the 1700s of Italy’s San Marcos Square and its surrounding marina entitled The Molo from the Basin of San Marco by Bernardo Bellotto.
As a professional floral designer, Laura has access to the International Floral Trade Center in Carlsbad, which she calls her version of a candy store. Even with access to an incredible resource like this, she must sometimes custom order if she has something very specific in mind, as she did with the Flexi Grass she used in this year’s Art Alive entry.
While Laura has our lovely office in Mission Valley to create her interior design work, her floral creations come to life mostly in her garage.
“I need a bigger garage,” she added.
Congrats on your past work, Laura. We can’t wait to see what you come up with for the 2024 Art Alive show!
