Sculptor explores the power of the flower for community unity

Not every artist gets honest feedback on their installations. But Michelle-Marie Heinemann got a candid reaction to her towering "Flower Tree" statues when she was at Rosie's Coffee shop at Villanova Station in Pennsylvania and overheard a few patrons talking about them. 

The three daisy-like sculptures were outside her Pennsylvania home but easily visible from the street.

"I heard two women talking about the house," she said. "One of them said, 'Sometimes, even when it's out of my way and I'm heading right, I take a left just to see the sculptures.' I almost started crying."

When she revealed her identity as the artist, the pair shared how the sculptures always brightened their days.

Now, Heinemann's Flower Trees are finding a home in Florida through a foundation she just established.

Heinemann is the CEO and founder of the Flower Tree Foundation, which she said she established in January. She moved to the Golden Gate Point area several years ago after calling New York City home for about 30 years. 

While she and her children loved the city, they moved to Florida when the opportunity arose for her son, Hudson, to pursue a potential future in football by attending IMG Academy.

Photo by Dana Kampa

She was familiar with the Palm Beach area, but the west coast of Florida was new to her. 

"I quickly started to understand there was much more of a community here than I thought possible," she said. "Very quickly, I became madly in love with this area."

She started out on Longboat Key before buying a condominium at The Ritz-Carlton, Sarasota two years ago. 

Larger than life

Launching the Flower Tree Foundation was an organic idea, she said.

"It's purpose driven, but not with the purpose of monetization," she said, adding that it was the type of project "that just ignites."

Photo by Dana Kampa

She installed her first public Flower Tree sculpture at the New College of Florida, where the white daisy brings a pop to the green field near an on-campus plant nursery. It was the first of her daisy series sculptures.

The piece, titled "Lady Banyan," was dedicated on May 23.

Her aluminum Flower Trees stand at 9 feet, 6 inches tall —with an additional 2-foot base — and 7 feet, 8 inches wide.

Heinemann said she felt motivated to gift this piece to the school because she has long championed both the arts and youth education. 

As part of the foundation's outreach efforts, she said it plans to offer a summer internship for a freshman college student seeking a profession in art to teach them about the process of sculpture making.

What started as a local effort now is in the process of extending overseas. This month, two sculptures are making their way to Paris, Heinemann's artistic stomping grounds. One is going to the Bois de Boulogne. Closer to home, she is planning one for St. Pete and another for Tampa. Six are going to Palm Beach. The day before the interview early in February, the foundation confirmed an installation at a hotel in Hawaii.

"I understood pretty immediately that this had the potential to be be very big, in the sense that these flower trees could be in thousands of places, nationally and internationally," she said.

Even with an international stage coming into play, Heinemann said she envisions Florida always being at the heart of the project.

Heinemann said she is focusing her efforts on enriching public spaces because it has the ability to reach people in a uniquely meaningful manner.

"I always feel like art should inspire, art should encourage, and art should motivate," she said. "The simplicity yet grandeur of my Flower Trees is that it evokes the sense of childhood, of where we came from. We were all children, and that's something I don't think we should ever lose.

"We should always maintain this sense of playfulness, of silliness, of awareness that embraces the innocence and freedom of childhood."

Her hope is that as students are traversing campus between academic exercises, they can spend a moment taking in the art. 

She hopes the foundation will also be able to help champion artists who would like to share their work with the public.

"I don't believe art should be confined within walls," she said. "I think art should be available to everyone."

As for what's next, she said the next collection focuses on hyacinths, a celebration of her daughter by the same name.