Spring Awakens at Norwood's Art in Bloom

After a cold and icy winter, the Norwood Evening Garden Club welcomed springtime with their 19th annual Art in Bloom. The free event took place from March 22-23 at the Morrill Memorial Library.

Art in Bloom showcased unique artwork from Norwood and Walpole High School students, paired with interpretative floral arrangements crafted by members of the Norwood Evening Garden Club. Twenty pieces of artwork were displayed in the Simoni Room at the library.

The student artists used a wide variety of mediums, including Adobe Illustrator, acrylic, watercolor, pastels, colored pencil, mixed media, ceramics, pen, and more. “The art teachers bring in 20 pieces of different media, and the Norwood Evening Garden Club will randomly distribute the artwork. Then, our club members make floral designs that interpret the artwork,” explained Norwood Garden Club member Laura Vaites.

Members of the Norwood Evening Garden Club selected a diverse array of flowers to complement and interpret the student’s artwork, including mums, tropical ginger, carnations, snake plants, bird of paradise, gerberas, African daisies, fan palms, billy balls, cherry blossoms, forsythia, curly willow, and much, much more. Vaites explained that the garden club members source their flowers from different places, such as the New England Flower Exchange, local florists, and grocery stores. “We also offer a workshop to the floral designers for practice,” remarked Norwood Garden Club member Debbie Wells.

Vaites discussed the artistic process for the floral designers.

“We start by carefully looking at the artwork and reading the descriptions, which are important because each artist explains their intent and creative process,” she said. “After taking in the colors and shapes, we set that aside in our minds. Then, when we go shopping, and choose flowers that speak to us and help us interpret the art in our own way. The container is just as important — it might be a vase or another vessel that ties everything together. Sometimes, we’ll walk into a store, spot something and think, ‘That’s the exact color of my artwork — I need that piece!’”

One student artist, Syesha Johnson, created a Phoenix using mixed media. The Phoenix portrays Johnson’s interest in the idea of rebirth, past lives, and rising through hardships and difficult problems. Lynne Riley, the floral artist, used bird of paradise, gerberas, and shasta daisies to translate Johnson’s art into a blooming arrangement.

Riley Alger created an abstract art piece out of styrofoam, coat hangers, CDs, packing peanuts, egg cartons, and acrylic paint. Norwood Garden Club member Susan Cosman carefully arranged snapdragons, ming fern, dogwood, billy balls, and blazing stars into a modern white dish to capture Alger’s vision through florals.

Norwood High School student Aiden Feroli painted a portrait using oil pastels. “The photo I used was from one of my favorite movies, Call Me by Your Name. I chose these colors to represent emotion, and bring out the shadows in the portrait. They also represent the setting, Southern Italy during the summer of 1983, with mostly warm colors for the heat and light to dark greens for the environment,” Feroli explained in the description. Floral artist Tabitha Akatan used bear grass, leather leaf, hare's ear, and checkered lilies to capture the green and orange portrait with florals.

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The title “Art in Bloom” is used for annual spring exhibitions at art museums, highlighting the relationship between fine art and floral design. The original exhibit was held in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston in 1976, where it is now held annually. A MFA Boston volunteer, Lorraine Pitts, created the phrase “Art in Bloom.” Many art galleries and museums across the country host annual “Art in Bloom” exhibits, including the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, the North Carolina Museum of Art, the Saint Louis Art Museum, the Museum Of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg, Florida, and more.

For nearly three decades, the Norwood Evening Garden Club has been providing gardening/nature education and public beautification in Norwood. Since 1996, they have been welcoming gardening enthusiasts of all skill levels from Norwood and neighboring towns, including Walpole, Westwood, Dedham, Medfield, and Randolph. For information about the Norwood Evening Garden Club, visit www.NorwoodEveningGardenClub.com, or contact Mary Ellen Heike at meheike59@gmail.com with questions.

The Norwood Evening Garden Club will be hosting their 2025 Annual Plant Sale on Saturday, May 10 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. The event will take place at the Norwood Senior Center, located on 275 Prospect St.