Luminary in the Art Museum world, Jock Reynolds catapulted the Yale University Art Gallery onto the global art museum stage when he worked with James Polshek to renovate and expand the Art Gallery. At the rededication he invited both the Yale community and the New Haven community to consider the new Art Gallery their living room to relax, enjoy and be inspired by Art.
When he announced his retirement, Laurie Laliberte, the YUAG event planner and one of my favorite clients, asked me to design a very special centerpiece for his farewell dinner. She had chosen to focus on his sense of humor and the avocation he is most passionate about—fishing!
The tablescape channeled his fishing trips on which he always wore his signature red felt hat. He lit his camp sites with portable battery operated lanterns and used the ubiquitous red and white plastic bobbers which we used as lures attached place cards for his friends and colleagues to find their seats. Copies of the Yale Daily News story of the Gallery rededication completed the scene awaiting my centerpieces.
My design solution was to create miniature river, stream and lakeside landscapes. These are fragments of woodland water banks (vintage Iitalla Ultima Thule crystal bowls filled with river stones, mosses, ferns and tiny asters, Muscari and cattails). In a nod to his love for fly fishing and a humorous note, are hand tied flies tethered to golden wires freeze-framed over the imagined watery scene.
