Riverside Collective is excited to host Guest Artist Blawesome for the months of March and April 2025!
Blawesome is a four-acre flower farm and design studio in western Orange County, NC. The farm is part of a movement called social care farming, which uses farming and agricultural practice as a vehicle for providing therapeutic intervention to vulnerable and marginalized populations. At Blawesome, they value the process of farming as much as the product.
Blawesome is owned and co-operated by Raimee Sorensen, a young and vibrant entrepreneur who has a diagnosis of autism. Working alongside a small team of experienced and passionate growers, Raimee starts all of Blawesome’s 75+ varieties of flowers from seed, and pours his energy, heart, and joyful spirit into the care and cultivation of each blossom. Blawesome sends flowers out into the world with a deep desire to alter existing stereotypes that undermine the potential, the possibility, and the capability of individuals with developmental disabilities to be a beautiful and meaningful part of the local economy.
We wanted to go a little deeper with the folks at Blawesome, so we asked co-operator Rebecca Sorenson a few questions:
What inspires your art?
I exist in a space where cultivating the natural environment is not just about growing flowers—it’s about growing connection, meaning, and inclusion. I’m deeply inspired by the ways we can care for the land while simultaneously creating opportunities for engagement and belonging, especially for individuals and communities who are often overlooked. My art is a reflection of that process—of nurturing both the earth and the spirit in ways that promote a positive human experience.
If you were to speak for your art, how would you finish these statements?
I feel… Grateful to have the opportunity to do work that brings me an indescribable amount of joy and fulfillment, and that I get to work alongside one of my favorite humans.
I need… support from the agricultural community to create more spaces for inclusion and conversation around how to build a stronger and more robust social care farming network.
I am… hopeful that Raimee’s experiences and outcomes will increase awareness and positively impact the way we, as a community, recognize and support the potential of individuals with developmental disabilities—not just as recipients of care, but as valuable contributors, creators, and friends in our shared world.
What’s your favorite tool and why?
A blue tooth speaker! Music is such a big part of my life and Raimee’s, and adds a touch of magic to our growing & designing process. We definitely spend time recognizing and immersing ourselves in the songs of the natural environment (the birds, the incredible amphibian population, the winds blowing through the trees) but we also enjoy a lot of dancing and singing while we work our way through the day.
What’s one thing that someone who isn’t a flower farmer or floral artist wouldn’t know about what you do?
We recently welcomed a group of college students from a sustainable food systems course at Guilford College. One of them asked, “What do flowers have to do with growing sustainable food systems?”
Our answer is that there’s more than one way to feed a community. Beyond nourishing bodies, we also need to nourish the human spirit—especially for those who have limited access to meaningful work and opportunities to be seen as contributors. At Blawesome, the process of farming flowers becomes a powerful vehicle for connection, purpose, and dignity. For individuals like Raimee, who are often excluded from traditional workplaces, the act of growing something beautiful isn’t just therapeutic—it’s transformative. It’s a way of participating in the world, of being valued, and of giving something meaningful back to the community. That’s a kind of sustainability we don’t talk about enough—but one that’s just as vital.
What idea or concept are you chewing on right now? Has it shown up in your work yet?
Housing, intentional neighborhood design, and community programs that incorporate art, connection, and accessibility into our living spaces.
It’s a very big undertaking, and will take a village to come to fruition. But I’m hopeful. Stay tuned.
Are you a rebel with your art in any way? How does that make it better?
I don’t identify as a rebel. I’m a mother, a storyteller, a farmer, a social worker, and an Enneagram 3. I like to work under an umbrella of harmony and find ways to challenge culturally outdated and/or unkind perspectives by posing love and joy as better options. Our designs are made with flowers grown on a farm that has a very unique attachment to social responsibility and care. But I would argue that most farmers- especially in our local community- grow with an intense compassion and desire to be in service to the land and to humanity, as well.
Mother Nature is the true artist, and I feel honored and obligated to hold her gifts out to the world in a way that allows me to share our story and the things that are relevant and important in my life; and I hope will be an expression of art that is transformative and meaningful to others.
For me, art and beauty are rooted in presence. They’re deeply personal and often show up in the quiet—in the things we might otherwise overlook. Our story doesn’t make our creations better; it simply gives them a different rhythm, a different heartbeat. At Blawesome, that heartbeat is shared with someone we’ve grown alongside—an individual with autism whose way of moving through the world has taught us so much about grace, patience, and perception.
Working with flowers—ephemeral, delicate, and full of spirit—has become a way to center beauty not only in the natural world, but also in people who are so often excluded from it. Our process is as much about cultivating meaningful work and belonging as it is about growing blooms. We want to reframe how beauty is seen and who is seen as capable of creating it. At its heart, Blawesome is about honoring the value in everyone—and remembering that sometimes the most profound contributions come from the most unexpected places.
Find out more about Blawesome at their website, https://beautifulblawesome.com/