Refreshed by the Arboreal Ritual, Leah walks through the site, letting herself become porous to the natural materials around her, the stone and wood, which she doesn’t hesitate to brush with her fingers. She’s also inspired by the cream and blue tones that reign here. Scissors in hand, she gathers echinacea and grasses directly from the flower beds surrounding the baths, as well as juniper branches she spotted in the spa’s wooded area.
With a confident gesture, Leah places asymmetrical stems on a table. “I went with a muted colour palette to match the surroundings at the spa,” she explains. “The peach of the echinacea; the white of the allium with its bursts of florets; the soft, silver-toned greens of the foliage; the harsher visual effect of the juniper with its spherical, cool-blue berries; and some floaty Karl Foerster grass.”
Under the artist’s agile hands, these distinct specimens are joined together into harmonious contrasts, embellished with a naturally dyed silk ribbon. On the ground, ends of stems and bits of leaves gather in an elegant pile reminiscent of the birch branches used during an Arboreal Ritual: “A necessary mess I allow myself to make when arranging flowers or working in the garden,” says Leah.
