After several years of appreciating and being inspired by the paintings of the Dutch masters I find that I am now really bothered about the use of food in floristry designs. I feel that we can’t justify incorporating fruit and vegetables in our arrangements or table decoration in the current political climate.
In the age of food banks at home and the need for international aid deliveries abroad it seems totally wrong to grow and use food for decoration, unless of course all the food is actually eaten after the event.
Quite a while ago now I worked in primary schools (my other life) and witnessed the struggle some families had to put food on the table. I was made aware at that time that using food in art was unacceptable. Early years teachers often taught how to make pictures with pasta , mosaics with lentils and beans – you might have seen them, or had them on your fridge. I woke up to the fact that, in the face of children arriving in school hungry that this wasn’t a sensitive or ethical choice.
I admit I have done it. Since growing cut flowers in the last thirteen or so years I have grown pumpkins and marrows and scooped out the flesh and arranged in the outer shell (I DID eat the flesh), and I have dried imported oranges at Christmas for wreaths. I admit that the fruits and vegetables that are currently fashionable to use are beautiful- the purple beans, the raspberries, the black tomatoes, the currants to name a few – and, to be honest, I would like to grow and use them.
BUT in the face of the current economic criss at home, and the critical plight of those experiencing territorial war abroad, I find I absolutely can’t.
hilarysquireflowers 