Art Installations at Native Poppy: 2022 Recap
Visiting Native Poppy is always a treat – whether you’re taking in the bright colors of our floral stem bar, or breathing in the scent of our locally made candles. Did you know that we also collaborate with local artist Ashley Renuart to create seasonal art installations at our South Park and Solana Beach flower shops? Our goal is to create an unforgettable in-store experience, and Ashley’s visual displays bring so much magic into the stores.
To celebrate a new year of creative collaborations, we’ve compiled a recap of Native Poppy’s in-store art installations from 2022. Ashley created some amazing displays — which is your favorite?
Spring Art Installation
For Spring 2022, Ashley created a beautifully collaged installation using layered paper pieces with floral imagery cut or printed into each panel. At Native Poppy’s South Park store, these collage pieces were layered along the long wall of the shop, creating a mosaic of colorful petals in shades of bright orange and pink.
This install was created in collaboration with Native Poppy’s Operations Manager, Steven Topham. Steven worked overtime laser cutting hundreds of paper pieces based on Ashley’s design instructions. The vibrant cut paper panels were a combination of photorealistic floral imagery, painted color fields, and white laser cut floral shapes. Pieced together, the artistic installation looked like a floating floral cloud hovering above the shop displays.
In our Solana Beach store, Ashley opted for a more three-dimensional approach. Using the same collaged and cut paper pieces, she mounted hundreds of pieces to styrofoam spheres, creating bubbles of floral magic that floated through the store. These orbs hung over our main gift display table, adding extra pops of color to our Valentine’s Day display.
Summer Art Installation
Giant crepe paper florals filled our Solana Beach and South Park flower shops for summer 2022. These massive blooms were handcrafted by Ashley, measuring up to two feet across, and some were taller than our florists! This created an Alice in Wonderland vibe in the stores, making the experience of shopping for regular-sized flowers feel extra fun and surreal. Don’t the fresh flowers on our stem bar look tiny by comparison?
At Native Poppy Solana Beach, Ashley installed multicolored Coneflowers with fluffy, ruffly petals. Intermixed with the coneflowers were purple and magenta Scabiosa flowers, with their distinctive bumpy centers. Each giant flower patch was “planted” using industrial wire wrapped in crepe paper, and attached to panels that were covered in mossy green texture for added organic appeal.
At Native Poppy South Park, Ashley’s installation climbed across the ceiling, creating a woven patch of morning glory vines in shades of blue and purple. Each flower was hand painted to highlight the inner petals and stamen, and the curlycue wire “vines” wound their way across the store to create a floral canopy of giant proportions.
Fall Art Installation
Our South Park store was closed during Fall 2022, after a car crashed into the shop! While renovations were taking place at our South Park store, Ashley threw all her creativity into the Fall installation in our Solana Beach gift shop.
With gorgeous jewel tones and dried gourds, Ashley created an autumn art installation that took our breath away. Ropes were wrapped with colorful yarn in shades of purple, gold, and burgundy to create a ceiling installation that hung above our retail display. The loopy display helped set the tone for our Thanksgiving displays, with the colors of the ropes highlighting our selection of dried flowers and autumn branches. Talk about decorative gourd season!
