Floral Sculptures with French Flair: The Artistry of Lisa Fontanarosa

Lisa Fontanarosa is an interior stylist and floral creator whose gardens and lavender fields inspired her to build a creative business blending floristry, fashion, and design. Read on to learn more about how she marries her love of flowers and fashion to create the sculptural works of art.

How did you get started with your creative business?

My gardens inspired the floral storytelling of my creations. The intricate and captivating beauty of dried flowers has always fascinated me. I am passionate about dried flowers. My home and gardens lay the foundation for my styling and flower business. I turned the back of our property into its original intent: a flower-filled haven with a field of lavender.

It has become a refuge where I can establish a dialogue through the floral sculptures  I create and objects that characterize the environments that I style, including my home, shop, greenhouse, flower shed, tables, and clients. Fashion and farming are my two loves, and they take center stage in my shop, flower shed, and greenhouse. And they are truly gorgeous!

When did you realize that you could turn your passion into a business?

The seeds to my creation blossomed when my clients asked to purchase my dried floral bouquets and sculptures. My runway-ready floral sculptures, as I like to call them,  are inspired by all things femme and French. I love the life that emanates from them and the connection between installation art and floristry, fashion and flowers.  I circled back to fashion (my first love) with my vintage dressmaker forms sourced from my travels to France.  My floral fashion mannequins blossomed into another creative outlet combining my two loves, fashion and flowers. They are the keystone of my style. The vintage figures, which I find on my trips to Paris, become a blank canvas where I create dried-flower arrangements. Using flowers from my gardens and lavender fields, I let the compositions create themselves so they can tell their stories with a large dose of je nais se quois. 

How do you define success for your business?

I define success as creating businesses built on beauty and passion that evolve organically.

Where do you find inspiration for your work?

Paris has always been my greatest source of inspiration and my gardens, of course. The first time I visited Paris, when I was 20 years old, I knew it was going to be a long love affair. Since then, I've been traveling to Paris for my styling business.  My floral obsession began in Paris when I walked into a little flower shop and was instantly taken with the French style of dried bouquets. 

What's one piece of advice you wish someone had given you when you first started your business?

Follow your passion. Do whatever brings you joy. Create just to create.  

What advice would you give to someone who wants to start selling their art or creative product?

Identify your joy, then build your life around it. That is what I did!

What's something our audience would be surprised to learn about you?

I have to constantly create and challenge myself. I get bored easily. I am constantly changing up my home, my shop, my flower shed, greenhouse, and my table settings!

As creatives, we can be continuously creating and refining our art. How do you handle perfectionism?

The ethos of my styling business has always been a love of things made by hand because they are not perfect. I find beauty in the touch of the hand, a wonky serving piece, imperfectly perfect, just like all of us, is my perception. I have always found things made by human hands to be the most beautiful, the most coveted, the most collectible. 

What's something that surprised you about running a creative business?

That I would really love the business side of it also. I didn't think it would ever interest me.  I learned so much about business from my father, who had his own textile business.

What’s your advice for handling the highs and lows of running a business?

Never give up on your passion. I define success as following my passion and creating. Success is having the courage to do what you love, even if those around you tell you not to pursue it.  Surround yourself with people who champion you.

Has someone ever criticized your work? How did you handle it?

People will judge, don't listen.

What's a cause you are passionate about?

Global warming, and you can learn more at https://www.noaa.gov/climate.

Can you share the name of a supplier or vendor that you use for your business that you just love—one that makes running your business a bit easier? 

I love to source my mannequins at thrift shops and Paris, and I love the wire sculptures and lighting of Marie Christophe, a French artist, which I stock in my shop and greenhouse, and they happily live in all the spaces in my home and my clients' homes.

What brings you joy?

My home is an emporium of goods and a celebration of beauty.  My joys are my flower farm and my floral creations. The two strike the perfect balance.  My home is a place of wonder, an international design business, a lavender flower farm, cutting gardens, a shop, a flower shed, newly built greenhouse. Creating businesses built on beauty is my greatest joy!

Thanks, Lisa! You can learn more about her work at www.lisafontanarosa.com.

Photo credits: Northern Light Photography and Gabriella Marks Photography, provided courtesy of Lisa Fontanarosa.

Editor’s Note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.