TRIBUTE TO NEW YORK
Florist-extraordinaire LEWIS MILLER revealed to LA BOTANICA Magazine the mystery of his spectacular floral designs
that took over New York City.
Interview by Contributing Editor Olya Titova
LB: You have expanded the traditional perception of floral arrangements. What made you come out of the frame of the expected?
LM: To be perfectly honest, it was a combination of being comfortable and having a strong desire to give back. In September of 2016, my business was doing very well, I had a great team supporting me, but I was not feeling fulfilled professionally. I knew the answer lived somewhere in the idea of making a gesture of goodwill. Personally, contentment can lead to complacency. Work was busier than ever, my clients were happy, but I wasn’t feeling challenged. And then it clicked: how great it would be to counter my profession of throwing extravagant parties for my fortunate clients with giving something similar to average New Yorkers. This is how the Flower Flash was born.
LB: Your installations are very provocative. Do you find it to be a way for you to communicate with your audience? What story are you telling here?
LM: That has always been the goal of the Flower Flash, to elicit an emotional response with flowers. People are starved for beauty. Especially if you live in an urban city; space and nature are your greatest luxuries. I couldn’t do much about the space, but I could do something about nature. I have always been in love with the Dutch Masters’ paintings. These striking floral compositions are set against the dark, inky backdrop, forcing the viewers to look at every perfect and imperfect bloom: from the delicate, checkered petal of a Fritillaria bloom to the bug eating a leaf or a random broken stem. I am trying to do the same with my Flashes. Force people to put down their phones and look up, receive joy, receive beauty.
LB: You choose the most unorthodox bases for your arrangements — phone booths, trash cans, fire hydrants, street sculptures, old cars, and so on. Is there a connection between your installations?
LM: Contrast and duality are the pillars of my work. So it just feels right for me to knock up the pretty against the gritty. I love the juxtaposition of a textured, graffiti, stickered dumpster and perky, bright-colored Gerber daisies. My Director of Special Projects, Irini Arakas Greenbaum, is responsible for finding all the locations and photographing the final image. These Flower Flashes wouldn’t resonate in the same way if they were placed anywhere else. We love to celebrate New York but not with a Starbucks sign in the background. It’s important for me to choose places that feel very urban and very New York. I happen to love graphic street signs; I love the stripes of the crosswalks and the bubble gum riddled sidewalks. To me, they look like zebra stripes and polka dots, respectively. I see New York in a very romantic way.
LB: Your installation art began creatively, not commercially, and only expanded after commercial brands started to commission from you. How do you manage to transfer your provocative and interactive design into commercial work?
LM: It’s tricky. My team and I have had to navigate the growth of these Flower Flashes in a very thoughtful way. We are VERY picky! We don’t partner very often, and when we do, it’s with like-minded brands, and branding is the last thing we choose to focus on. What is important to us is our original message. These are flowers for the people, these are public street art installations and are meant to be interactive, meaning New Yorkers can take the flowers. We don’t discourage or encourage interaction. We “Flash” and whatever happens after that is in the hands of passer-buys. Another element is always to try to fold in a charity moment. Our most recent Flower Flash was for Valentine’s Day. We outfitted four hot dog carts with the season’s most beautiful blooms, and for every post tagged, we donated $1 to the Jed Foundation. https://www.jedfoundation.org
