The Court of Imagination in Bloom

The Court of Imagination In Bloom Logo
In every culture and throughout time, flowers have been central to the human experience. Whether growing wild or in gardens, blooming in works of art or written into the pages of great literature, flowers surround, delight and inspire us.

Danish author Hans Christian Anderson, known for his classic fairy tales, once said, “Just living is not enough…one must have sunshine, freedom and a little flower.”

The Court of Imagination in Bloom will feature dresses and trains that portray a wide variety of flowers with all of their associated myths, legends, traditions and stories. We will illuminate these tales and highlight the brilliance of imagination with glittering dresses, sparkling trains and radiant smiles!

Court Artist / Designer

Each year a Court artist/designer is carefully selected to create the Coronation Court dresses and trains. The artist’s designs are a reflection of that year’s inspiration and theme. The designer specifically chosen this year to bring Imagination in Bloom to life is artist, Shelly Porter.

Shelly Porter, an abstract artist who works primarily in watercolor and acrylic, grew up and spent most of her life along the Texas coast — first in Corpus Christi and most recently a little further north in the Houston area.

For Shelly, fine art in its purest form has always inspired her and brought her a true sense of self. As such, it was natural for Shelly to take her innate artistic talent combined with her interior design degree earned at the University of Texas at Austin, and her post graduate study in fine art at Del Mar College, and move into expressing herself through painting.

Artist Shelly Porter

Essentially a self-taught artist, Shelly began painting in earnest following her experience with cancer. As a cancer survivor, art brought Shelly to a new place providing her with an outlet for spiritual and gestural expression on canvas and simultaneously offering a language that could not be put into words; one she considers to be “soul speak”– a language of the soul.

Circular shapes – serving as symbolic meanings for sacredness, eternity, wholeness, isolation and boundaries – are visual elements often found in her work. And she continually explores the physical and physiological effects of color, shape, form and movement within herself and how they come together to connect and touch the viewer. Her work – as she creates it and shares it – is designed to visually inspire the mind and, in turn, deeply touch the soul.