My Lotus flower story

In 1996, I moved into a little house in Echo Park with a big view of the lake.  My morning ritual was to walk my dog Guru down to the lake for a little walk. There is a path that circles around the lake and we followed it to the north west corner to see the Lotus flowers.  Over time, I watched them grow and  pieced together a story of how the flowers lived and then died each year. I thought it would be an interesting photographic series but dismissed pursuing the idea as I was working on other projects. What I did do was bring my friends down to the lake to visit the flowers and I pretended I was their tour guide pointing out all that I had learned from watching the flowers grow.

Time passed and life happened and I found myself one beautiful Saturday morning not wanting to walk Guru down to the lake.  My heart was broken and I laid there torturing myself with regrets and blame.  Exhausted my mind silenced and I heard a calm voice from within that said “start to photograph the Lotus flowers”.  I didn’t know it at the time but that was the voice of my heart speaking.  I needed a break from the fighting going on inside my head and I got up, loaded my Nikon with film and followed Guru down to the lake.

It was March and the flowers’ first leaves were starting to appear on the water's surface. As I composed my images, my creative juices began to flow and I forgot about my sorrows for those moments.  A few days later, I picked my film up from the lab and was thrilled by the beautiful images I saw on my proof sheets.  I spent the next three years focusing on the Lotus flowers in Echo Park Lake. They were elegant, strong and gentle and there was a sweetness about them that brought me peace.  Sometimes I felt like they were smiling at me and I smiled back at them.

Soon, I started exhibiting and selling the work in juried exhibitions throughout Los Angeles and around the country.  In 2002, I had my first solo show at a local Echo Park gallery called Ojala a Spanish expression that means “I hope” or ”God willing”.  A few years later and after fifteen years of calling Los Angeles my home, I decided to move back to New York where I was born.  My dream was to support myself with my art and it wasn’t happening for me in Los Angeles. Besides leaving behind my friends and neighborhood I was sad to leave my Lotus flowers.  They were my friends, too.  It was from them that I learned that rebirth was necessary and it was there wisdom that gave me the courage to start again.

Around the world

Egypt:  Creation fertility and rebirth 
Mayan:  Earth 
Persia:  Sun and light
China:  Fruitfulness 
Japan:  Past present and future 
Tibet:  Mystery
Hinduism:  Beauty and non attachment 
Buddhism:  Spiritual growth, purity and enlightenment 
Christianity:  Divinity 
Judaism:  Purity and beauty

                It’s not just a pretty flower

In ancient Egypt it was the symbol of the number 1000. All of its parts of it are edible and are used medicinally. It has the highest vibration of any flower AND the lotus flower is the only plant to fruit and flower simultaneously

                            It's divine

Get your lotus love!