Evening star., 1950-03-19
Continued From Page Ell.

ton very largely in the period
when chow to-do-it" books may be
had on practically any subject,
with many of them couched in the
warm glowing terms of the per-
sonalities that claim everything is
easy, flower arrangement has a
prodigious literature both in mag
azines and books. These items
are mostly serious, earnest. we'll
intentioned but they are of every
degree of value from the most
dubious to the most gravely
authentic" None is so poor,
none is so abstruse, but that the
Intelligent reader can find some
thing for his enlightenment; but
as all of us know, intelligence
manifests itself in varying degrees,
and understanding as we'll.
Flower arrangement suffers also
from another current practice, the
exhibition done in the competitive
spirit.
If one is an artist he submits
himself to all the needful disci-
plines that must perfect. the ex-
preston of what wells up within
his spirit whether he will or not.
1t is thing he must do, from
which he cannot escape and live.
It is not a continuous entry into
a sort of game in which he hopes
to come out "top dog, That, if
need be at all, belongs to the ear
liest period of his training not to
give inspiration. but to give per-
sonal confidence as one leads on
a child. The end result for him
is always his creation, in which he
attempts to express within the
materials, that innermost essence
of his being that must be commu-
nicated, even if he knows that
there is none to see, hear or fully
understand. 1t matters nothing to
him whether or not some jury
made up of say three individuals,
each one hedged in by his own
limitations of training, discipline
and selfness, will see and know
what he has seen and known. If
they do, splendid; if they do not,
no matter. he must go on learning
and living.
More Tronsitoy Than Pointing
AS form of art expression,
flower arrangement partakes in a
limited degree of the singular
quality peculiar to the perform
ance of music. the drama or the
dance, namely a brief duration
in time. The paintine, the sculp-
ture, the novel, the written play,
remain unless deliberately de-
stroyed, so that one may examine
them in their tangible forms.
Music performed. poetry read,
die upon the ear; the dance, the
actors gesture or bearing perish
with sight into memory.
The flowers gathered for the
arrangement last but little time
and this very Jransience offers
the artist spirit the same urgency
of acute expression that must
enliyen the performer.
The cropping for permanenee
that one finds in arrangements
designed from dried pods, seeds,
stems, pieces of roots, shelf fungi
and the like is understandable,
but throws overheard a certain
delicacy of refinement that could
be peculiar to this art.
OF Great Value to IndividuoI
If one accepts flower arrange
ment as a form of art expression,
and studies first as an apprentice
for the disciplines that have their
significance not only in manual
dexterity but in ones own sensi-
tivity of spirit to what is beauti-
full and appropriate to the place
and occasion, there is no question
of its value to the individual,
since intelligently planned dis
ciplines carried through a train
ing period make the only safe
conduct one may have to later
freedom.
If, having come into the perfect
freedom that is the artists goal,