Art Decoration

Nearly everyone is familiar with the paint-by-the-numbers concept. Imagine, however, that your "canvas" is 55 feet long, 18 feet wide and ranges from three to six stories tall. Now, add a "palette" that consists of styrofoam, flexfoam, window screen, chicken wire and latex paint in nearly every hue that Home Depot can blend. This is precisely the concept that Phoenix Decorating Co. uses in preparing its sponsors’ 19 floats – floats that will comprise nearly half of the Tournament of Roses Parade. Over the years the incredible efforts of the 16,000 volunteers who flower Phoenix sponsors’ floats has become well known.

A continuing question, however, is "how do the decorators know what kind of flowers go where?" The simple answer: a very talented art department toils for nearly eight months to provide a detailed, color-coded guide, and a surface fully primed and ready to accept the hundreds of thousands of flowers that transform each of the huge metal sculptures into a Rose Parade float.

The art department personnel begin work in early May, according to Art Director Cynthia McMinimy. After each of the floats is given its skeletal form by the welders and metal sculptors. Cynthia and her crew apply a total of 350,000 square feet of aluminum screen and 225,000 square feet of chicken wire (which is then covered with plastic) to provide the "skin" on Phoenix-built floats. Then the kitchen knives, saws and even household irons come into play as styrofoam and flexfoam are carefully shaped to provide additional detail.

Finally, it’s time to apply the paint – more than 700 gallons. Each color can represent from 10 to 20 different types of flower or application -- the crew chief assigned to guide each float’s volunteer decorators "decodes" the color guide according to a multi-page decorating book created for each float. The art department wraps up its primary work by the first of December when volunteers begin the application of dry materials – seeds, pods, rice, spices, bark, etc.; anything organic that won’t wilt over the weeks until parade day.

Then, bring on the flowers – millions of them – it’s show time!