Floral designer Jacque Askren of Askren & Sons adjusts a permanent silk flax flower branch in the table arrangement she's creating.

Photos by Ron Medvescek / Arizona Daily Star

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Bursts of color and fragrance. A dance of drama and delicate beauty. No wonder we celebrate special events with flowers. So when the University of Arizona Museum of Art decided to include flowers to initiate the celebration of its 50th anniversary, it wasn't so unusual.

But how those flowers figure into its kickoff event this weekend — well, that's a rose by another name.

There might be an O'Keeffe in orchids. A Carpaccio in carnations. Or a Tintoretto in tulips.

"Bouquets to Art" pairs works of art from the museum's collection with floral designers who are creating arrangements inspired by those works. They will be on display for a Friday evening special preview event and on Saturday and Sunday afternoon.

Curator Lisa Fischman has gathered her own bouquet of about 40 paintings, prints and sculptures from the UAMA's permanent collection. Weeks ago, a group of designers, some professional, some amateur, who work with garden clubs and societies across the country, were invited to peruse the works. A lottery was devised to match the designers with their favored works, making sure that all the museum pieces would be represented in flowers. The designers were given their assignments to create their own masterpieces.

A varied array of works by such artists as Jackson Pollock, Ernst Kirchner, Fernando Gallego, Mark Rothko, Helen Frankenthaler and Jacques Lipchitz will serve as inspiration to this group of designers. Their executions will be artistic creations and responses to these artists.

Lucy Belding, a new member of the Partner's Board of the UAMA and an exhibitor in this weekend's event, is quite familiar with the "Bouquets to Art" concept, having been a participant in similar affairs.

"Often these events are called 'Art in Bloom,' and museums in Boston, Birmingham, New Orleans, Phoenix — even in tiny Laurel, Miss. — have hosted them," said Belding. "Some of the larger ones even have them annually. And some are actually judged, although the UAMA's will not be."

A preview of some of the pieces delights and amazes.

Georgeanne Fimbres, a fashion design instructor at Pima Community College and a floral designer at Villa Feliz Flower Shop, captures in her arrangement the softly feminine and opulent vitality of Emile Jean Horace Vernet's "Portrait of the Marchesa Cunegonda Miscsiattelli With Her Infant and Its Nurse." Her globe of blushing peonies and roses rises atop a base draped in crimson cloth that echoes the drape in the chair in which the Marchesa is seated.

Georgia O'Keeffe's "Red Canna" inspired Joyce Mason Monheim's contribution. The painting's reds, yellows and oranges that fan vertically with such energy are anchored by Monheim's horizontal spread of ginger, heliconia, dendromium orchids and curly willow. At the center are clustered orange sunflowers, yellow roses, coffee berries and seeded eucalyptus. It not only complements O'Keeffe's passionate burst but extends it as well.

Jacque Askren of Askren & Sons has been happily challenged by her creative task, which is a response to Donald Judd's "Untitled (Cadmium Yellow Deep)."

"To tell the truth, I came a little late to the gathering of designers. and many of the works had already been assigned," she said. "No one had chosen this, and you can understand why. It's essentially a bright orange rectangle. I thought it might be a little too challenging, but then I thought, 'Why not?'

"Actually," laughed the mother of three, "the first thing that came to mind was that it looked like a card in Candy Land.

"Then I thought, 'One thing that I can do is complement the painting by creating a texture with the flowers.' My piece will mimic the painting — I plan to use lots of orange roses, orchids, carnations and some dyed preserved materials as well. But I hope it will make people who might be inclined to glance at and walk by Judd's work actually stop and study it."

Leigh Ann Waterfall and Grace Canale of Décor Solutions amicably debated whether they would use mood moss or sheet moss for the base of their work inspired by Henri Fantin-LaTour's "Baigneuses dans un Paysage."

Canale, a graphic artist graduate who has been designing with flowers for 10 years, ordered flowers to use that actually grow in France. The colors and sense of light in the artwork appealed to both of them, and poppies, French tulips, phlox, sweet William and lavender will represent their sense of the piece.

"It's always so amazing how different designers approach things," Waterfall said. "We're really looking forward to seeing what the others have come up with."

"I hope this will bring people into the museum," said Askren. "I really think this can give people a new sense of what art is."