Brooklyn jellyfish ballet

Aren't these jellyfishes mesmerizing? I couldn't take my eyes off them at the Aquarium on Brooklyn's Coney Island. I wanted to take them home with me but didn't want to get arrested, so instead I made this video. I love their dreamy, rhythmic choreography and tantalizing display of feathery, ribbon-like tentacles. I think I"m so attracted to them because they're flower-like. They make me want to make my flower arrangements more rhythmically beautiful...my thoughts go to a lotus pond in Taiwan, where a summer breeze stirred the lotus flowers to sway and dance. It was a spectacularly magical moment: another one of nature's perfectly choreographied ballets. [note: be sure to mute the audio before playing]

Mazezashi=Mixed composition of 5 or more materials.

There was an abundance of beautiful, richly colorful wildflowers at class today. It was a wonderful opportunity to try my hand at a mazezashi freestyle arrangement. It wasn't easy. With so many materials to incorporate, I found it difficult to carve out some negative space. The overall effect, that of a lush summer field, wild and free, beckoning you to come frolic within. If I were a bumblebee, I'd think I died and went to heaven there... Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!!!!!!

Tenri Gallery NY 2010 Sogetsu Show

Did you see the recent Sogetsu NY exhibition at the Tenri Gallery?
Here are 2 arrangements from the show, by A.Sano and N.Kawana, respectively.
I was struck by their bold geometric compositions.
Quite unique, aren't they?
I kept staring at them. I was stumped by a couple of questions. 1) is a good ikebana arrangement necessarily pretty ? 2) when is it considered going too far when organic materials are manipulated to look not so organic any more? I don't know, do you?
Good art stimulates, stretches the imagination, or makes one stop and think---that I do know.

To view more arrangements from the show, go to
the upper right "Page" section and click "Tenri".