Right now, it’s all about flowers.<\/p>\n
A free art museum is hiding at that huge cemetery in Glendale. Fittingly, the newest exhibition is about flowers<\/p>\n
\u201cPartly because it\u2019s beautiful and it\u2019s worth contemplating beauty, and partly because flowers are a huge part of the culture of a memorial park. So it\u2019s nice to be able to reflect on that in a museum in this setting,\u201d James Fishburne, director of Forest Lawn Museum and curator of “In Bloom: Flowers in Contemporary Art<\/a>,” told LAist.<\/p>\n These are not your everyday floral paintings though. Some of the artists in this show bring flowers into three dimensions.<\/p>\n Take Tiffanie Turner<\/a>\u2019s 2 1\/2-foot-tall paper flowers that are supersized with mind-boggling detail.<\/p>\n \u201cIt takes her months to make each of them. The level of anatomical detail is absolutely remarkable,\u201d Fishburne said.<\/p>\n Pieces from other artists in the exhibit \u2014 almost all of whom hail from Southern California \u2014 include intricate floral arrangements frozen in resin and detailed pen and ink drawings.<\/p>\n Simonette David Jackson, “You Are the Source,” 2023.<\/p>\n (<\/p>\n Courtesy Simonette David Jackson<\/p>\n )<\/p>\n Fishburne, who has a Ph.D. in Italian Renaissance art history, was first drawn to Forest Lawn because it has one of the world\u2019s largest collections of full-scale Michelangelo replicas.<\/p>\n But he says curating these free exhibits is a pretty cool part of the job too.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m just constantly getting to discover new people and showcase their work and sort of play with these really exciting themes. And everyday is sort of a new adventure,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n For his part, Fishburne thinks using cemeteries \u2014 like Forest Lawn or Hollywood Forever or even the Verdugo Hills Cemetery in Sunland-Tujunga<\/a> \u2014 as cultural gathering places is great.<\/p>\n \u201cWith Southern California having such incredible landscapes, it\u2019s a great way to be both outside and experience art and remember the past at the same time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Details<\/p>\n<\/p>\n