Flowers everywhere: Platform Arts commissions local artist Tom Pitzen for flower sculpture in St. Pete
The Lakeland-based group’s Cynthia Haffey found Gulfport’s Tom Pitzen, who brought his mosaic-styled sculpture to St. Pete’s Burlington Place Apartments.
Lotus sculpture outside St. Pete's Burlington Place apartments, by Gulfport's Tom Pitzen. Credit: David Dickey via Platform Arts
Lotus sculpture outside St. Pete’s Burlington Place apartments, by Gulfport’s Tom Pitzen. Credit: David Dickey via Platform Arts
Lotus flower sculpture outside St. Pete’s Burlington Place apartments, by Tom Pitzen. Credit: David Dickey via Platform Arts
Public art is hard, Tom Pitzen says, talking with me in his studio. But it's clear that he loves it. Pitzen just finished work on the 900 pound lotus sculpture now standing in front of St. Pete's new Burlington Place apartments. The new sculpture was a collaboration between Gulfport's Tom Pitzen, Fort Lauderdale's Green Mills construction, and Lakeland's Platform Arts. The goal: To make Burlington Place feel like home.
"It was a great process, because it's a wonderful interaction between the developer — what they want or what they think they want — and the artist's concepts," says Cynthia Haffey of Platform Arts. "You talk through the technology and how you're going to produce the work or actually do the installation. There's a dialog that happens between all of us."
Read Jennifer Ring's feature about how Tom Pitzen makes a living — and raises a family — on an artist's pay.
The dialog began with Green Mills Construction's Oscar Sol reaching out to Haffey in Lakeland. When Oscar came to town, Cynthia showed him examples of Platform Art's past projects in the Lakeland area. Oscar liked the work, so he invited them to find a local artist for their new Burlington Place project. Cynthia put out a call for artists living in the St. Pete area, and Tom (among others) responded.
Tom Pitzen’s Fallen Flower Credit: Jennifer Ring
"My proposal was a bunch of different flat mosaic flowers that kind of flowed with a vine through the windows," Tom says, "And then they decided, well, maybe we don't want something attached to the building. Oscar, who is one of the owners of Green Mills, he did some research on me online. Then I also brought in some images that I had done, like a large hibiscus flower; I've done orchids, big large orchids in tile, and their logo is a lotus. So we decided, after him seeing my work, and talking about it, that they would really love a really big lotus flower. It was a process getting there…It was like two proposals…the third one was the final one, with the lotus flower. It's always a journey getting to that point. And I'd been wanting to do a lotus for a while, so somehow it worked out perfectly."
Burlington Place apartments are two blocks north of Central Avenue's Grand Central District.
Jen began her storytelling journey in 2017, writing and taking photographs for Creative Loafing Tampa. Since then, she’s told the story of art in Tampa Bay through more than 200 art reviews, artist profiles,...
More by Jennifer Ring
