Mannequin Man Gives Woman Unique Relationship

DENVER (CBS4) - This is the week we celebrated Valentine's Day -- a holiday that a lot of singles say pressures them to find a sweetheart. CBS4's Gloria Neal spent some time with one woman who found a way to relieve the pressure and celebrate with a different kind of man.

Just mention Valentine's Day to those who are single and many will cringe, but Suzanne Heintz decided to turn her single status into an art form she could celebrate.

"There must be something wrong with me because I'm single and Valentine's Day is the biggest holiday that carries so much baggage," Heintz said.

Heintz is known as the Joan of Arc of single women, but it's the way she chose to deal with being single that's so unusual.

"It's as a result of a whole lot of pressure. I was getting to marry and have children," Heintz said. "I just kind of snapped under pressure."

But it was that pressure that helped her come up with a plan -- a plan for a man -- a mannequin man, that is.

"I was a woman getting older and I still didn't have a ring on my finger. And it all came to a head one day while at my mom's house for the holidays, and she just kind of put it to me point blank, 'Suzy, there's nobody perfect out there, when are you just going to pick somebody and get married?' "

So she snapped back.

"Well mom, it's not like I can just go out and buy a family."

And low and behold -- birth of an idea.

"I was walking in Denver and passed by a retail liquidation outlet and I saw an entire family of mannequins in the window, and I just had a eureka moment."

That eureka moment was anything but normal.

"I can buy a family, and I'm just going to take pictures and send them to my mom. But it turned into a bigger project than that."

The project has her taking the man of the mannequin family out on dates, including ballroom dancing for Valentine's Day.

"Your life is not on a schedule. Just because you turn 30 years old, it doesn't mean it's time for you to get married and have children," she said. "There's so much expectation, even for people in couples, around this holiday. So I thought it was a great time to take light-hearted satirical look at this holiday and go out with my artificial husband."

Heintz says she believes what she's doing is a form of art, but instead of it hanging in a gallery, her art is photographing and performing with her mannequin man. One woman's mannequin is another woman's man.