Meeting with Karen Kimmel - Flowers
Karen's studio is an impressive beehive of activity, nature-born imagery and patterns/colors/stimulation galore. I'd had a talk with her yesterday and emailed a bit as well to help her have a clear picture of what I/we are expecting of her before we all sat down in real time. She's used to grand scale events and worries that the flowers for the wedding, even though it is the flower concept that is being examined, will still require much more thought, labor and cost than what we are asking of her. All of her projects are completely thought through - there is nothing sloppy or unconsidered about them. At this juncture this plan of a rather open-ended wedding ceremony is without an aesthetic adhesive; this concerns her (and me), but this is the beginning of the process so I have faith we'll collaborate well and sort it out. (I also offered up my family as indentured servants for the cause)
I am not the type of person who would allow an event of mine be visually awkward or schizophrenic, but it did help immeasurably to bat around ideas and look at other projects of hers that created big atmosphere. Karen helped us begin to imagine ways to structure the visual glue of the different stages of the ceremony. Big installations with a lot of detailed organization and mastery over materials - this is second nature to her. Not to mention the inherent beauty, grace and inventive pallet that every object, drawing and installation embodies. Many of her workshops and events engage with under privileged and/or challenged children and adults; she brings them together via an art project to work on together, complete and exhibit within her overarching visual and structural plan. Three words that struck me as vital to understanding her work are: exchange, social and collaboration. I'll just let you look at her website - she says it best: click here.
I feel, the most priceless aspect of her art work for this wedding will be a visual language as well as a substantive psychological backbone for the space that will make people feel drawn together, participatory and safe.
Our talk was fun, intense and provocative. A discussion about the visual aspect to the wedding with Jon and Liz was something I don't think they'd thought much about. I felt they were challenged to verbalize what they wanted in a way they weren't prepared for, but that was interesting in its own right. It sure made my eye's mind abuzz.
