Art in Bloom and Sensibilities Aflame

The day is nearly upon us. Art in Bloom comes to the MFA this weekend. It starts early Friday morning when designers are given free parking and approximately three hours to put together their arrangements throughout the museum exhibition halls and byways. They will bring vases, blooms, stones, moss, grasses, ferns, leaves, twigs, and branches. They will spread drop cloths under their vases, and set to work rapidly -- composure mingled with suspense -- using scissors, knives, watering jugs, and their hands to turn what may look like a grab bag of random organic things into coherent, imaginative designs that complement the artwork and spaces.

We're talking ephemeral public art, here. It may not last more than a few days, but as surely as the paintings, sculptures, and decorative furnishings bring visual pleasure to all gallery goers, this burst of fresh color, texture, and inspired design will nourish the souls of passers by and offer a sense of hope and joie de vivre -- all the sharper, perhaps, for the accompanying awareness that flowers fade and a wind ruffles the wild grasses in fields and meadow.

It will be a lavish display for sure, and some may decry the expense in hard times. But "reason not the need" as Shakespeare said, and enjoy the riches of a precious moment.