Life is Asymmetrical (YOH9)
The Year of the Hummingbird Series: September
Sabriya Dobbins, Founder and Life Discovery Expert
This is the shortest and sweetest Year of the Hummingbird blog today because I want to capture the heart of minimalism in the Ikebana way!
This is going to be my type of class! It is going to be my session today!
Giddy, like a little kid, I walk into the big white house building at the gardens to check in for my Ikebana floral arrangement class. A nice lady waves us in to join her as I settle in with two other participants for the adventure ahead of me today. After we do the initial small talk that most humans do, it is off to the races, and we are going into the world of Ikebana, a Japanese way of designing floral pieces.
Here is the goal of Ikebana in a nutshell via verdissimo.com:
“Translated literally, it means “living flower” or “the way of the flower,” and it’s closely related to Zen traditions and is widely regarded to be an integral part of Japanese culture.”
“The purpose of making ikebana floral arrangements is not to create decorations. Rather, the purpose is to learn to appreciate certain things that people normally ignore.”
This class introduced me to the art of floral arrangement with minimalism and the asymmetrical triangle as a guiding source. I do not have a ton to say about the process except that it was truly fun and therapeutic. It was a space to play and to move in simplicity. We used four resources to build our floral art: 1) large leaves 2) the flowers 3) dried pieces of the palm tree (twigs) 4) marbles. We literally designed our pieces in that order as we added each part methodically to our own design.
To sum it up, here are 5 things I learned from the process:
Minimalism is not about taking away but about showing there is so much more with little. I desperately wanted to add more to my piece as I am a maximalist, but this reminded me to go back to the rawness of simplicity to appreciate the little things.
Creation is not about perfectionism as the beauty is found in the accidents. I am reminded why Bob Ross called them “happy accidents.” One of my peers in the class came up with the most amazing design and it was not from her original plan.
You cannot see what needs to be seen if you do not slow down and give time for one foot in front of the other, in this case, one plant in front of the other. I appreciated that we were forced to start with the leaves, then the flowers, then the twigs in that order as it forced us to see our piece deeply, over and over.
Art is a reflection of the moment. Each arrangement we created tied into our reflection of our world at that moment in time. My piece, I feel like, represented me struggling to stand tall as I stumble through one of the most complex periods in my life. We must honor our moments as they remind us that we are still alive and here. This moment may not match tomorrow’s moment.
Everything I need in the moment can be found in front of me if I allow it to be. This practice really encouraged us to use what we had in front of us, nothing less, nothing more. It encouraged me to ask myself what resources I have in front of me right now that I could be missing in navigating my life.
Bonus: Ikebana is about rules that are meant to be broken in between. While you want to follow the guidelines of the Ikebana process, I realize that it breaks so many of the floral arrangement boundaries as you adjust and organize flowers in such dynamic and creative ways. It encourages you to push past your limits and create a design that is beyond the realm of what you expect an arrangement to be. Yes, we must follow the basic structure of rules in life, but where can we break the rules in between to create a better future?
I am really proud of my piece. It was intuitive. It was daring. It was me!
Thank you to Irene at Harry P. Leu Gardens for reminding me that the beauty we seek lies in the little simple things, with imperfection being the roadmap.
Shout out to The Flower Hound, run by one of our own, Thea! Check out her flower business: www.flowerhoundnc.com
Fun fact about me: A little background, I designed my own wedding floral arrangements. I used fake flowers, and they remain to be house décor in my home to this day. This class I had been looking to do for a while, and I was beyond excited to have finally found it. I have always found it peaceful to arrange flowers as it is a form of art.