Artistry in Flowers at Dufferin museum
Friday June 6 2008
As a young girl growing up in the heritage village of Churchville on the Credit River, Kerstin Stinson would walk at the river’s edge, through woodlands and meadows searching for and gathering wild flowers.
Her father, Paul, was her inspiration. As a young German growing up in Czechoslovakia, he studied art at the University of Prague. Paul’s mother bought the farm adjacent to their brick factory and he left university at her request to run the operation — all of which in the end was confiscated by the Russians.
In Churchville, he created a magnificent garden park — a true master gardener he was. Already as a young child in returning to her German heritage, Stinson would observe intricate “arts and crafts” gardens, as well as examples of beautiful Victorian pressed-flower arrangements.
In 1983, Stinson found herself in a rural setting and planted three little rows of perennials. She slowly expanded her collection of floral plants while raising four children. She has years of self-directed study and training in the art of pressed-dried flower arranging. The same applies to her gardening expertise and fresh flower arranging. She successfully participated in and completed a national self-employment business training program supported by SEDI’s (Social and Enterprise Development Innovations) to develop enterprising initiatives of women in 2002. Then she opened Artistry in Flowers in 2003, a successful year-round business in floral farming, event arrangements, floral art, floral landscape consulting, and design workshops.
Stinson was recognized as one of five Canadian entrepreneurs who made outstanding progress in her personal and professional life as a SEDI program graduate in 2004. She was selected by a panel of judges to be presented the Going For Success Award from over 1,500 participants. That same year, Stinson was an artist guest on TV Ontario’s show More To Life. She was also profiled on the Global Prime TV documentary Second Chance – Making It Work.
A member of the Ontario Farming Association, Stinson has a 72-acre farm just outside of Shelburne, one acre of which is cultivated flowers, and an arts and crafts garden that is often on the tours of horticultural societies. From her gardens, which are masterpieces of bud and bloom, encompassing structural and decorative embellishments, she selects and presses fresh flowers she uses to create her intricate art pieces. While in the past her designs have been of bouquets and wreaths, her latest works are inspired by the shape of dwarf and ornamental trees in winter hibernation.
The Dufferin County Museum and Archives hosts Artistry in Flowers, a show featuring Stinson’s creations, from June 22 to Aug. 17 in the Silo Gallery. A opening reception will be held June 22 from 2 to 4 p.m.
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