Meeting with Karen Kimmel - Flowers (www.karenkimmel.com)
Karen's used to events at a large scale and is concerned that the flowers, even though it is purely that aspect of the wedding that she’d be examining, will require much more thought, labor and cost than what we are asking of her. There is nothing sloppy or unconsidered about anything she does. At this juncture this rather open-ended wedding concept is without an aesthetic adhesive; this concerns her (and me), but this is the very beginning of the process and I trust we’ll 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 to look at other projects of hers that created big atmosphere with fairly simple elements helping us to begin to imagine ways to structure the visual glue for stages of the ceremony such as hanging elements that would create shadow, or stencils on the table cloths to bring patterns together across the room. Big installations with a lot of detailed organization and mastery over materials - this is second nature to her; they also contain an inherent beauty, grace and inventive pallet that were the reason I asked her to be a part of this in the first place. 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.
I feel, the most important aspect of her work for this wedding will be a visual substantive backbone for the space that will make people feel drawn together, participatory and safe.
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.
