69����

Rossiter said she has been designing and event planning since soon after graduating from high school. She worked for a local florist who took her under her wing. She said she’s always been artistic so floral design came easy.

In 2016, she opened Mod Bloom Floral & Events in a shop downtown and said every day since has been a learning process. Part of that learning and growing is being a part of this art show in Milwaukee, she said.

Art in Bloom is Thursday through Sunday, April 18-21. According to the Milwaukee Art Museum’s event website, , it is a celebration of spring that will feature “floral interpretations of favorite artworks in the galleries,” by florists from around Wisconsin. It will include live music, refreshments, shopping and art making. There will also be a Floral Fashion Party on Friday, April 19, with tickets for that sold separately.

Rossiter said soon after she was notified that she had been chosen to participate in the show, she went to Milwaukee where she gathered with other designers. They looked at 31 pieces of art, and then requested via a lottery several works they hoped to base their floral entries on.

She chose two works of art, one of which she felt was well within her comfort zone and one that was completely outside of it. In the end, she chose to create an entry based on the more challenging one: a 6-foot-tall stainless-steel sculpture. It has one beam in the center with thin, vertical metal sheets cascading out of the pole like an umbrella.

“I wouldn’t consider myself a huge sculpture person; I am more of painting watercolors and oils,” she recalls. However, “I thought ‘How am I going to grow if I don’t do something that’s way out of my comfort zone?’”

She liked the shape and that it was metal and felt it was something different from what she would have created in her studio.

She said that the artwork reminds her of a willow tree and that is how she plans to approach her floral piece.

“The lights and shadows do different things to the sculpture that make it look like a fountain. My goal is to pick up on the little pieces that people will see differently than me. It looks like a willow tree; to someone else, it could look completely different,” she said. “The goal is to find the happy medium of what judges want to see and what the public wants to see.”

She said her goal isn’t to mimic the sculpture — but to complement it. She also doesn’t want her entry to look too abstract, so that a regular person wouldn’t be able to understand it. She is excited for the challenge and said she feels like those who know her work will know that it’s hers.

“I flourish when it comes to challenges. When I’m coordinating for a wedding, if something arises, I’m really good at going with the flow and making those changes on the fly,” she said.

Designing pieces for both the art show and for the Floral Fashion Show will be a challenge, she said, but also a great opportunity to meet people in the same field and hopefully open herself up to new opportunities.

“Anybody who does anything for long enough can get complacent or burn out,” she said. “And in the wedding industry and event industry it is really easy to burn out. I’m happy to have something that challenges me to think outside the box.”

At the Floral Fashion Show, floral designers will be paired with fashion designers to create floral embellishments modeled as a piece of clothing — perhaps a whole dress, a shirt or accessories.

Entries will be judged on parameters such as the amount of fresh flowers or plants in the design. In addition to awards presented by the official judges, who have an art background, there will also be people’s choice awards.

Rossiter said she is excited to learn more at the event about wearable floral pieces like headpieces or accessories so she can use those in weddings.

She will be documenting her journey on Facebook and Instagram.