Wow, I didn't expect this thread to grow like that. Seems like for the most part this concept is pretty debatable. I am an artist. I've been spending the majority of my life doing visual art (from the very first time I had the ability and understanding of how to use a crayon). So, naturally I work visually. It's not something I can change overnight. It carries over into my writing style. I'm descriptive, and I love imagery. I'm not afraid to admit that nor am I willing to change it; every writer has their own style. For a couple years now I've been trying to work on a 'cinematic' style. Naturally, the concept of purple prose hit pretty close to home. I felt self-conscious about my writing -- after all, from initial research this concept seemed to attack my very writing style, something I've been developing for the last ten years and something I've always thought to have potential. My reaction is probably apparent in my first few posts here. Frankly it angered me that the concept could be so generally thrown around, it seemed like it was a quick go-to label that could be tossed out rather than specific feedback on the writing itself. In all honesty, "flowery" description is actually pretty enjoyable to me. I like seeing how a writer organizes his or her words to lay out a scene. It shows vision, creativity, and above all, mastery of the english language. There can be bad description and there can be good description, but that's the case with all writing. At the end of the day, though, I just want to write something awesome. I don't care if my writing style can be called purple prose. If I pull off what I envision and make an enjoyable work of literature, that says far more than trying to pick apart my work and eliminate every generalized, discouraged writing practice in the book. Just my two cents, now that I'm familiar with the concept.
I think the critique with purplism is that it's inauthentic. Not just florid or somehow tedious, but that it strives to conjure weighty, searing emotions from mundane material. Your ice cream cone falls into the dirt. This is certainly an unfortunate turn of events-- but the purple approach would be to have this spark a whirlwind of emotions, leading to the sober contemplation of suicide. That's the aspect that annoys people, the overblown falseness of it all.
Yes, it's debatable because it's a subjective negative judgement. If a reader actually likes a passage, they won't complain about it being "purple". Another reader who hates it might well make that complaint. The fashion at the moment is for a pretty low threshold, but that just sends readers who want that sort of thing back to 19th century novels. Most readers' tolerance of such passages will be pretty low, and novice writers are liable to write that way, so any market there is for such writing is going to be small and saturated. If you really do enjoy reading that sort of writing, though, there are probably websites that specialise in it.
I remember reading a book -- can't remember which one -- in which the protagonist had learned Italian entirely through listening to grand opera, with the result that when he went to Rome he couldn't order a newspaper without giving the impression that he was about to throw himself into the Tiber if he didn't get the edition he wanted. That's probably the ultimate in purple prose. People still like grand opera, though!
I would have thrown myself into the Tiber, if I could have found it, when I realized that Madonna movie Evita was going to pin the tail of every line of dialog onto some donkey melody... what a test of endurance that was.
As someone else stated, people might not care enough yet. The problem isn't necessarily with purple prose: starting straight off with 2 paras going into detail about this guys eyes might be construed as infodumping. Obviously it's impossible to tell without seeing it. And what you're describing sounds interesting in itself, which is probably enough. I mean, the dude's eyes are on fire. The reader is going to wonder what is up with that and keep reading to find out (or at least I would).
Purple prose seems to be the default mode of writing for angsty, blogging teens. If they are your target audience, by all means give it a broadside. You're a visual person you say, so consider purple prose to be somewhat similar to paintings where every surface is at maximum saturation and the frame around it is bursting with ornaments that demand constant attention, too. The trick of making a good painting is to have only a few points of focus, leaving less important parts subtle or undefined. If every square inch screamed for constant attention, the picture as a whole would be an intolerable eyesore.
I've got two rules for my writing: Brevity and Tight. Purple Prose falls into my brevity rule. I'm very comfortable with my ability to use quality description but it's not unlike a good dish: Something too sweet can be overbearing, or overpower another quality ingredient. I always look for excuses to tone things down if not cut them out completely.