Bloom | 24" x 24"

24" x 24" | mixed media on Baltic birch with gold + silver leaf. The numerous layers are fused with carving + lyrical scrawls and finished with a UV protective varnish | framed in custom wood float frame | ready to hang

In many spiritual traditions around the world, the Lotus flower is a symbol of life, renewal, and transcendence. Like most culturally meaningful plants and animals, this symbolism is rooted in true elements of its biology. The lotus starts as a seed in the mud. It grows many feet before emerging into the air and blooming, revealing a delicate flower unscathed by the muddy waters from which it arose, and in which it is still rooted. The mud is said to symbolize the stuff of life, the physical world, while the flower symbolizes spiritual enlightenment. Its life cycle, growing out of muddy waters into the air, symbolizes transcendence. There is another element of the plant’s biology that is often referenced: Seeds of the Lotus have been known to lie dormant for years, sometimes hundreds, until conditions are right to grow. Such a feat can give us hope for the promise of renewal.