Sunday, August 30, 2015
Helping Gerry Toh, AIFD in Denver AIFD Symposium
What might you ask did I help with? Of all the tasks to be done, mine was quite the challenge. At 7:30 at night in the Downtown Sheraton banquet room where Gerry Toh parked himself for almost a week, I finally got the chance to do whatever I was asked by him. After some cart pushing of large oasis soaked foam and some other menial tasks such as putting votive candles on 40 tables, I received a challenge from Gerry that I will never forget. See the piles of leftover styrofoam from the shapes that were cut out for the reception centerpieces? Well, we are going to create art by gluing these shapes in random patterns to look like it was all planned out exactly how you see it. And by the way we only have 5 glue sticks left to save our souls, so be very sparing. We have 20 three foot grates upon which to glue these shapes and almost no space in which to work. No matter, we are florists and we are creative. Once I got over the initial shock of my guts turning and wanting to exit rapidly from this mess (reminiscent of my shock of helping out for the Rose Bowl Parade in December in other words, floral concentration camp) I found my groove and away I went. There is something very serious about working with your hands, trying to find a pattern in which to work and to work as rapidly as you can. Even though I was not designing with flowers but instead with shapes and glue there was still a groove in which to get into. I wanted to help Gerry and I got more out of this experience than if everything was all set up, organized and free from constraints. And to top it all off when Gerry saw me at the finale dinner extraordinaire he gave me a hug and thanked me! What a sweet, humble, incredibly creative and talented designer.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment