Artist Biography
Abstract artist Lotus Heartsong is well-known for examining ideas of duality and balance. She creates portals to other realms in her paintings by combining dimensions of abstract thought patterns with vibrant color palettes. While earning her degree in Anthropology at GMU, she was impressed by the intrinsic connection of humankind and the natural environment. Her art is a celebration of the vibrancy of life and the human experience as she sees it.
As a highly perceptive person who loves to travel and express herself intuitively, she bases her inspiration on the internal process of integration that she witnesses in both herself and others when moving through developmental cycles.
Systems that foster and encourage division rather than unity among community groups have particularly affected Lotus, both as a student and in everyday life. These profoundly embedded, enculturated systems often contain unacknowledged trauma. She has come to the conclusion that the obvious solutions are independent thought and collective compassion.
Lotus represents the intuitive spirit in everything from divination to esoteric and metaphysical philosophy. She believes that every person possesses a larger truth that exists outside of their physical experience and social circumstances that may be alchemized by deliberate focus. This supports her on her journey of self-study and artistic investigations of the duality within. Chaos and Harmony, Tension and Release, Visible and Invisible, Light and Shadow, Complexity and Abandon, Generation and Entropy. Her visual inquiries explore a variety of pairings, these being just a few examples.
Lotus’ process begins with an intuitively placed organic form on canvas, and then she shapes what she sees in greater detail until seemingly unrelated aspects of the work are balanced and connected. The objective is to establish totems and focal points to aid in the understanding of dualities like those mentioned above, so initiating the spectator into even more complicated systems-thinking via visual guidance. Nonetheless, her work is intended to overload the senses while leaving just enough undone to enable the viewer some agency in reconciling beauty and disharmony within the art and collective.
While at GMU, she was influenced by her art history and sociology residencies in Florence, Italy, and Intercultural Communication in Tahiti, French Polynesia. While studying independently in Tarapoto, Peru, she also studied Visionary Art Processes and Methodology. Her collaborations with regional art groups have included Olly Olly in Fairfax and The Soundry in Vienna, Virginia. Lotus is presently based in Alexandria.
Lotus Heartsong 