Lori's Blog: 2017

12.06.2017

Appearing 12/25/17 - 1/2/2018 at Sargent's Fine Art, Lahaina Maui!

It was so great to see some of my old collectors and a special thanks to the new ones I met last week at Sargent's!! I'll be returning to Maui on Christmas day until the January 2nd and will be at the gallery everyday painting while I'm there.
Until then....Mele Kalikimaka!!

11.09.2017

New Gallery Venue & a Personal Note to my Collectors:

To My Dearest Collectors,

After 15 years showing at the 844 Front St. Lahaina location, I have finally made a refreshing change in gallery venues… Signature Gallery Group helped me make the move from my previous location, and I thank them and the owner Ann- from my heart , for aiding me during this transition. They are wonderful people and I'm so grateful to them and all the new collectors during the last couple of months!

From November 24-30, 2017, Sargent's Fine Art Gallery, at 802 Front St., will be hosting a reception and feature show for me and my art, as I will be working with them from here on out. I am very excited tabout this union and look forward to a very successful future for everyone involved!!!

On a personal note: Although I pulled out of The Harte Gallery recently, and they no longer are authorized to represent my art or myself, I was unable to get the list of my collectors for the past dozen years. So, if you would like to be placed on my contact list for new releases, upcoming show information, or would just like to contact me for anything, Please email me here, as each one of you are personally important to me, and I would love to hear from you!

With all my ALOHA to you all! -Lori

8.21.2017

New Releases!!

Higgins is excited to announce the release of three new original oil paintings,

and New Gallery Locations!!!!!


"Blossoming Resonance" 16x22 oil on wood panel by Lori Higgins (see Catalog Page below)

The Original Painting of "Blossoming Resonance" is currently Available

at Higgins' new gallery on Maui!

On display at:

DeRubeis Fine Art Gallery

770 Front Street Lahaina, Maui HI 96761

808-667-0515


"Kane Kahiko" 40x10 oil on wood panel by Lori Higgins (see Catalog Page below)

The Original Painting of "Kane Kahiko" is currently Available

at Higgins' new gallery on Maui!

On display at:

DeRubeis Fine Art Gallery

770 Front Street Lahaina, Maui HI 96761

808-667-0515


Spirit of The Superstitions" 24x49 oil on wood panel by Lori Higgins (see catalog page below)

The Original Painting of "Spirit of The Superstitions" is currently Available

at Higgins' new gallery in Vegas!

On display at:

Signature Galleries

The Grand Canal Shoppes at the Venetian

3377 S. Las Vegas Blvd, Suite 2310 Las Vegas, NV 89109

702-699-7100

Hand Embellished Limited Editions

of all new pieces are also now available at the above galleries, including:

Wyland Galleries Beachwalk Waikiki

Waikiki Beach Walk 1st Floor, 226 Lewers St, Honolulu, HI 96815

808-920-1322

Wyland Galleries Haleiwa North Shore

66-250 Kamehameha Hwy, Haleiwa, HI 96712

808-637-8729

7.02.2017

My little Billi-Girl has passed...

Friday, my little girl had emergency heart surgery but her precious heart stopped the next day while recuperationg. My heart is so heavy right now...


Billi-Girl Higgins, passed in Phoenix 7/1/2017

I miss you so much right now, you were my partner in crime, my only child , my precious angel!!!!!

6.27.2017

It's Official!!!!

Lori Higgins has left Harte Galleries in Lahaina as of 10am today 6/26/2017!!!

Higgins is excited to announce her move to Signatures Gallery Group..and will be showing her work and new pieces in Wyland Galleries on: Front Sreet Lahaina, Maui - Wyland at Beachwalk, Waikiki, OAHU and Wyland Galleries Haleiwa, North Shore!!

More info to come in the next few days.........

5.06.2017

"Getting ready for the Vegas Show!"

"Only 10 more days until the Vegas Show on the 20th! Getting excited to see everyone, it's been too many years!!

I'll be unveiling new pieces including original paintings and my latest sculpture the Dancer! She'll be in her clay form and the Harte gallery will be offering a pre-cast special deal on her that day.

I'm also really looking forward to collaborate on the Patina for her with the first buyer!!!!" -Lori

Harte Gallery All Artist Event
The Four Seasons Las Vegas
Saturday, May 20th 2017
(I'll be in attendance from 11am through the evening, and again on Sunday for brunch with the first collector(s) of "The Dancer")

The Artist

Lori Higgins, a self-taught artist, is a well-collected and established artist out of Maui, building repeat collectors and international clients for her oil paintings, drawings, limited editions and sculptures.

Through her world travels, varied occupations, challenges, and personal accomplishments, Higgins’ life reads like an inspiring adventure story. She pulls from those experiences and captures emotions, feelings, and the power of the female spirit. Through her subjects -whether angels, hula dancers, children, or Native Americans- she has a unique way of touching one’s very soul by moving the viewer past the subject matter and into a more spiritual realm.

Higgins’ started exploring her creative depths through oil painting when she found herself on Maui back in ‘98. Always motivated by challenges, she immersed herself in the clay medium and began sculpting back in early 2009. After a couple of years of learning through experimentation, she finished her first bronze sculpture “Spirit of Aloha” in life size, followed by re-sculpting the piece into small and medium sizes. As her sculptures are very complex and delicate, Higgins temporarily moved to Arizona in order to be closer to the bronze foundry she utilizes. Although her heart lies in Hawaii, her current high desert surroundings have inspired a Southwestern line of imagery.

For over a decade now, Higgins has been showing in the Maui gallery she previously owned, and has just begun exhibiting at various fine art shows on the mainland. Since parting with the business end of the art world, Lori now focuses her time strictly on her own artwork. Occasionally she accepts painting commissions, but is currently sculpting a portrait commission as a bronze bust. Lori Higgins handles both mediums so masterfully that they result in beautiful and touching, as well as sought after, works of fine art.

Higgins’ online viewing gallery and contact information can be found at: www.LoriHiggins.com

Artists' Statement

a I spent many years searching for what I was “supposed” to do in life.

I traveled, studied, worked a variety of jobs, always looking but never finding my calling. After graduating from a university in Europe with a degree in Psychology, I joined a British aid organization as a convoy driver in the Bosnian war (one of many instances where I used to seek challenging and male dominated activities as I felt a need to prove that a woman could be as strong as a man if not better). The experience exposed to me to many extremes: love, hate, perseverance, life and death. Everything I saw and felt there stretched me in so many different emotional directions. Upon my return to the States in 1995, I was detached, restless and repatriation seemed impossible.

It’s obvious now that what I was experiencing was PTSD, but back then I was just desperate to find an outlet for all the pent up emotions that were starting to overflow. In late 1997, I found myself on Maui and soon after started painting. I had purchased some paints and brushes, and things just poured out. (I remember loving the feel that I was ten again and in the studio of an oil painter my mother found to give me lessons.) At first it was incredibly therapeutic for me, but once others noticed and wanted my paintings because of the raw emotion and feelings they stirred, my purpose came into perspective. I realized that what I had been so fervently seeking all over the world was actually inside me. Sensing that I had the talent, I spent the next years studiously developing the skill, one painting at a time.

I get asked a lot about why I created any one piece. My inspiration for a painting or sculpture may be derived from a number of different things: how I’m feeling that day, a past experience, a moment I enjoyed, a hula dance, a flower, or an emotion. For instance, at an upcountry fair on Maui many years ago, I watched a mother pick up her child. The child had no interest and was pulling away, reaching out for something else, when her mother just hugged her. That hug did not get nor need reciprocation; it was strong yet delicate, private and so touching. It was that very second of unconditional love that inspired the painting “Tender Love”. I felt I had to capture and share such a rare and fleeting moment of such deep love and emotion.

My pieces typically embrace the power of the female spirit, and many subjects are looking up and out, away from the material world and toward the spiritual. I like to use sepia tones in some pieces to give them a more timeless, placeless feel. My subjects are not “portraits” per se, as I try and keep their personality out so they don’t look like someone specific. This allows the viewer to look past the subject and see or feel the emotion and spirit of it instead. (Only when I do a portrait commission does the personality of the subject become key.)

After much success with painting, in 2011, I decided to challenge myself again and make my creations three dimensional. I began sculpting with “Spirit of Aloha”. Having never been trained in the sculpting process, it took a couple of years to complete the process of sculpting the life size piece in clay and having it bronzed, but when she was done, the sculpture of "Spirit of Aloha" was amazing, and the accomplishment fulfilling. I have a few more in the works including “The Dancer” and a second inspired by my painting “Ka No’ono’o”.

Currently I live in the high desert of Prescott, Arizona near the bronze foundry I use for my sculptures. Now that I am no longer in the gallery or framing business that occupied me 24/7 through most of my 30’s, I can concentrate strictly on my own art. I spend my days painting and sculpting, with long walks in between, letting the crisp coolness and heat of the desert inspire and replenish me. It’s a stark yet beautiful contrast to the tropical islands I love and miss.

Through Hawaiian and Southwestern themes, and the realms in between, I explore through paint and clay how to make the human figure touch us on a spiritual level regardless of the theme. That challenge of bringing alive a blank canvas or slab of clay, has become my passion and that “purpose” I had always sought.