Floristry for the Future
Transplants from Louesa Roebuck’s old northern Ohio home, Currier and Ives prints hang on red-flocked wallpaper in her Ojai cottage. “In this setting, all of a sudden, they achieved high camp,” she says
Reimagining the art of arrangements and installations
Text and images excerpted from Punk Ikebana (Cameron Books) by Louesa Roebuck with photographs by Ian Hughes
Ojai-based floral designer Louesa Roebuck, author of Foraged Flora, is known for her ability to interpret the traditional “way of the flowers” from her own unique perspective, creating stunning installations with seasonally gleaned and foraged materials from California. Her artistry celebrates the natural world just outside our doors. Here, Roebuck shares with us a slice of her lush, enchanting world—and a few musings on the powerful meaning of "punk ikebana."
I Silence. In ikebana, this particularly refers to a quiet appreciation of nature, free of noise or idle talk. I agree that to hear more clearly, to see more deeply, we need to learn to quiet the easily distracted “monkey brain,” the self—although I do reject the idea of humans as somehow separate from “nature.” And sometimes it’s fun to gossip while working!
“Local fruit is a new love, its offerings changing monthly, even weekly: pineapple guava, persimmons, citrus galore, passion fruit, cherimoya, and our own pomegranates.”
II Minimalism. Here’s where my punk aesthetic comes in. I’m a bit of a rebel and a maximalist more often than not. I do strive for harmony and balance in my compositions always, but I also love the glam, the sexy, the louche, even. All of that said, the use of negative space is intrinsic to this practice, and often a foreign aesthetic concept to Westerners. I lean into both vibes.
“You ask, “How long will floral creatures, these ‘arrangements,’ last?” I answer
every time, “I don’t care; beauty is not about duration.””
III Harmonious Form and Line. When you gather and glean seasonal and local flora and compose naturally, you will find that harmony comes effortlessly. The longer, deeper, more studied, or more expansive your search becomes, the more treasures you find just outside your doors. Mother Earth contains all of the multitudes where they need to be; there’s no need to fly flora in from anywhere else.
