When life gives you broken stems—make a flower arrangement! Two of the Angel Face Angelonia stems were hanging at an angle, broken by the weight of the sheet that kept them warm.
I snipped the flowerful branches and put them in a vase with a tall, narrow neck. I added the smallest branch of Persian Shield and the straightest Parrot Leaf I could find. When I take cuttings, I always try to leave at least one set of nodes (growth joints) behind so the remaining stem will branch out (grow again or “revive”).
I needed a third flower to complete the arrangement since design, whether floral or art calls for an uneven number. The deep pink Penta’s color seems to be made for the Parrot Leaf’s beautifully “painted” leaves (a member of the Joseph’s Coat family), so I gave the star clusters the starring role. I stripped the Penta’s leaves before adding it to the arrangement, or they would have hidden the more colorful ones.
Much of art these days is made of things not often thought of as art, broken things, cast aside things. But this isn’t just modern art; in past centuries--even millennia as they are today, many artists’ pigments are made from soil/dirt. Pigments such as burnt sienna and burnt umber are made from baked dirt. We artists use what’s around us--granted, we have to pay a lot for art materials companies to process them, but we make something beautiful out of the ordinary, even the broken. God, the ultimate Artist does the same with people giving us—when we turn to him through Jesus, the most wondrous beauty, a reflection of his glory.
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