La Fleur Du Jour - SECOND FLOOR ENGLISH DRAWING ROOM, DRAPERIES, CA. 1960S

Photographed by Rudney Novaes

Florist’s inspiration: This piece is inspired by the historical genre of entertainment called vaudeville, an evolution from the French Comédie-Francaise marionette shows, and the heavy velvet drapes often seen in classic gilded theatres. These productions were a popular form of entertainment, where entertainers would put on a show for the masses, prior to film and television. Vaudeville evolved from traveling minstrel, circus, freak, and French mime shows of the early 19th century. It often consisted of dancers, strong men, impersonators, acrobats, singers, trained animal acts, clowns, ventriloquists, dancers, and magicians. Examples of the form can be seen as late as mid-century in classic tv shows such as The Dick Van Dyke Show and I Love Lucy, and the films Singing in the Rain and White Christmas. These gold drapes transported me to the smell of these theaters with their dark wood, musty air, and the hushed whispers of an audience anxiously await- ing magic. Marionettes and puppetry have been pop- ular entertainment since ancient Chinese civilizations but have more recently been featured in public the- aters such as The Salzburg Marionette Theater in Austria, given nod to in "The Lonely Goatherd" scene in “The Sound of Music”, — a source of inspiration for this piece.

Recipe: Kangaroo paws (I hand-strung individual kangaroo buds to mimic the luscious pleats of velvet), fresh and dried flowers, delphinium, tulips, snapdragons, various petals

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