So I just found this doable with my painter and went to test with the Handy Sim I had. So long as you can get your Sim into one of the four emotional states (Playful, Flirty, Sad, Angry), you can make a Sculpture that gives off one of those Emotional Auras. Thanks a lot for making sure I was aware of this. I did not know this about Bonsai Trees either, so should look at my Gardener and try to help people by informing they can get Focused for their Gardening by putting one of them outdoors
The Aura things we get for registering Sims 3 are very powerful, but I expect those to either go away or that many people won't have access to all of them so love finding new ways to trigger these emotions.